


Empress Vader Takes Over the Galaxy

by aldojlc



Series: Empress-Verse [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Empire, Empress Padmé Amidala, Empress Vader, F/M, Galactic Senate, House Naberrie, Machiavellian Padme, Politics, Skywalker Empire, lots of politics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-21 05:10:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14908974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aldojlc/pseuds/aldojlc
Summary: Empress Vader and her husband work to consolidate their power in the early days of their Empire.A sequel, of sorts, to Heirs to the Empire, though not entirely chronologically.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't expecting to write something so soon after Heirs, but the idea of describing how Empress Padme took control of the Galaxy would not stop bugging me. I expect to write some scenes and vignettes, until I run out of inspiration. Narratively, this would be a sequel to Heirs, though chronologically it would lie somewhere in the middle. This will not be to the scale or ambition to Heirs...rather it will be a more straightforward documentary on the political behind-the-scenes in the early days of Padme's Empire.
> 
> I would recommend reading Heirs before reading this one, but if not, at least reading that story's Prologue and all the flashback italics scenes, which describe events that transpired prior to those that will be described in this story.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

It saddened her to see her sister's eyes on the verge of panic. She tried to calm her, but Padme knew there was little she could do until she could assure Sola in person.

"It was harrowing for sure," she said, not wishing to recollect in detail the feeling of being attacked by a Sith Lord. "But I'm still here, aren't I?"

"Anakin, is she telling me the truth?"

The tall former Jedi leaned forward next to his wife to show himself to his sister-in-law's holo.

"Padme experienced something very few in the Galaxy ever have. Sith lightning can be deadly, but we can be thankful that she was subjected to it for no more than a second or two."

"Ani saved us all again," Padme said, reaching for his arm affectionately.

"I shouldn't have let it happen in the first place," Anakin protested quietly.

The image of Sola Naberrie frowned, as if she knew that both her sister and her husband were holding something back, but she knew not to press them before they were ready.

"Mummy and daddy will be happy to know you're okay," she finally said.

"Has the holonet footage reached Naboo?"

"It's rather unavoidable, unfortunately."

Padme winced. "I'm sorry you all had to witness that."

"I'm more sorry my baby sister had to live through it," Sola said indignantly. "Of course you would, you're always in the thick of things. I'd say you ought to retire this very minute and come back to Naboo, but that's not all that possible now, is it?"

"No," Padme replied, clearly avoiding eye contact. "There is chaos spreading system to system right now; many are finding the Supreme Chancellor's death and betrayal hard to swallow."

"And once again my sister is the only one who can make it better," Sola said wryly. "Queen. Senator. Now...I don't even know. The footage seems to indicate that the Senate voted you an Empress? No one really knows what to make of that..."

"Acting Empress," Padme corrected. "It's something that's needed for the moment. With rioting gaining momentum and systems threatening to secede all over again, we need to act quickly to prevent the Clone Wars from breaking out anew."

"Of course you do," Sola said resignedly. "And I won't be much help in that. Anakin, take care of her."

"I'll do my best, sis."

"Love you both."

"I love you Sola. Give everyone my best. I'm sorry I can't talk to them now, but as soon as things calm down..."

"Will do."

The holocall switched off, and husband and wife looked sadly at each other.

"I hate lying to my own family."

"I wouldn't say you lied. More like you withheld the full truth."

"Truths," Padme said bitterly. Two nights ago they weren't sure they would survive the night as the Supreme Chancellor, her former mentor, had revealed himself as a Sith Lord and tried proclaiming himself an Emperor. One day ago the Jedi had confronted her, and threats beyond the pale had been exchanged, Padme going so far as to threaten, with the authority of the acting Empress, to re-invoke Order 66. And that night, Padme Naberrie Amidala Skywalker finally made the decision to put what was left of the Republic out of its misery.

"Are you ready for today?" The sun glinted through the windows of the small apartment, blinding their views of the Senate building in the distance.

"I am," Padme declared. She felt more refreshed than she had in a long time. They had made love the last night, her first time as an Empress, the two of them the only ones in the Galaxy who knew she intended to keep her title. Then she slept, both of them soundly, knowing that finally, their fates were in their own hands. "I have a Loyalist committee meeting at 1025."

Her husband raised a skeptical eyebrow. "We'll see how long they stay loyal. Do you need me there?"

"I'll be able to handle myself. You have plenty to worry about."

"Tell me about it. These riots won't quell themselves."

Padme, in the middle of picking out a dress for the day, stopped. "It's odd, isn't it? These riots on Coruscant?"

"What do you mean," Anakin asked, the confusion evident on his face. "The lower levels have always been troublesome."

"The lower levels never cared much for Palpatine either. His support was always concentrated in the upper and middle levels of the planet. So why would the lower levels erupt after his death?"

Anakin processed the thought. "Sabotage, then?" Seeing his wife's nod, he grinned. "If only you were Master Yoda, the mystery of the Sith would have been unraveled within a day."

"If I were Master Yoda, you wouldn't have tried to kiss me by the lake so many years ago. At least I hope not." She turned serious. "We have a few hours before the meeting. I say we pay our favorite Vice-Chair a visit."

* * *

The lower levels of the Senate Building were busier than usual. Clones walked about in patrol of every hallway, and the detention cells, usually empty, were fast filling. Rex paid his General a salute as he and his wife sauntered through the hall; the Senator outranked him now, he realized, still getting used to reporting to the acting Empress.

"We'll handle it alone."

"Are you sure, General? Some of the prisoners can be unstable. We nearly had an uprising overnight."

Anakin motioned at the lightsaber hanging off his belt. "We'll be fine."

"I'm hungry," the Chagrian politician roared out, roaming his cell block imperiously as ever. "You've scarcely fed me since my illegal arrest."

"Rodia went hungry too," Padme said demurely before allowing herself to channel her anger, "after you diverted their aid funding to your own accounts."

"That is baseless slander. I will ruin your career over this, both of yours!"

She gave her husband a subtle nod, and at once Mad Amedda found himself flung through the air and slammed violently against a wall.

"Your own records betray you," Anakin said, his gentle voice belying the action that had just occurred.

"Seized illegally...," Amedda managed to mutter through the shock and pain.

"What don't you understand," Padme said as she walked slowly over to the fallen politician. Despite her small frame, she seemed to loom over him at the moment. "I am the law now. This is the system you yourself helped create after all."

"Usurper..." Before he was able to complete his thought, he saw streaks of blue and felt unbearable pain. The torture continued for what seemed a lifetime.

"These were your contingency plans, weren't they," Anakin questioned after he was done with the lightning. "In the event the Chancellor failed, he means to throw the entire Republic into chaos."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"He won't break," Padme said with a shrug to her husband. "I'm impressed, actually. Can you read into his mind?"

"He won't like it." He paused. "Neither will Master Obi-Wan."

The Chagrian floated in the air and convulsed for several minutes as his own memories were forcibly ripped out of him, dropping to the ground unceremoniously when the unconventional interrogation was over.

"Bounty hunters," Anakin said quietly to his wife. "One Cad Bane."

"The network must be wider than that."

"It is," Anakin said, nodding. "Palpatine must have kept them all isolated, even from someone as powerful as Amedda. But it's a start, and I've obtained several of his encryption codes. They will lead us to other collaborators."

"Then our time here is done." Padme turned to leave, but just as she was about to do so, she changed her mind. Walking back towards the former Vice Chair of the Senate, now lying on the floor with a nearly comatose expression, she leaned down to lift one of his lethorns and whisper into his ear.

"Welcome to hell, Amedda."

They left the cell and rejoined the Clone squadron outside, with Rex accompanying them on their way out.

"No one is to enter any of these cells with the exception of myself and the Empress," Anakin commanded. "No lawyers, no family, no one who purports to represent them. This will be an island, for all intents and purposes."

"These prisoners are powerful politicans," Rex said warily. "We'll see trouble over them sooner or later."

Anakin nodded. He respected Rex because he wasn't one to take orders without thought.

"Nothing you can't handle. The dichotomy of power has changed," Anakin responded, secretly proud of his use of the word, one more likely uttered by his old mentor, the  _Negotiator_. "Power. Empress." He enunciated each word carefully, pausing deliberately between the two. "Those two words are now one and the same."

* * *

As a politician, Padme was used to acting. Among her closest allies, Padme was thankful she never needed to play pretend. Until now. She studied the faces of the Loyalist committee sitting before her. They were cramped together, there being scarcely room in her office to fit them all and, despite her new position, she did not want to take the former Chancellor's office yet. Not until every last sign of the monster had been removed. There was, she mused, a political advantage to staying as well. Keeping her old office would assure the Senators sitting before her, and ease their minds so they would better believe her lies. The presence of the Clones, however, eased no one's minds besides Anakin's.

To one side sat Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Fang Zar, and Garm Bel Ibis. They had been the ones who had, alongside her, risked the most in their opposition to Palpatine in the waning days of the Republic. They were the ones whose motives she could trust the most, yet she had the most to fear from. To the other side sat Ister Paddie, Orn Free Taa, the corpulent Twi'lek, and Onaconda Farr, the Rodian. Paddie had been loyal to Palpatine and the Republic, but he had not been, to Padme's knowledge, corrupt. The Sermerian Senator had advocated mainly for unity in the wake of the war, and Padme decided she could trust him for the time being. Taa was corrupt without a doubt, and though he had tried to curry his way into the former Chancellor's inner circle the way Amedda had, he had never fully gained the Sith Lord's trust. That was his saving grace now, the only reason he had not yet been arrested. Padme could use him, but she would never trust him. The Rodian Farr, however, was a cipher. He had, like many, initially supported the Chancellor's emergency powers, only to lose his faith in him after several years of war and abuse. Though he spoke out against Palpatine from time to time, he kept to himself otherwise and had rebuffed her and Bail's offers to take his opposition to the next step.

"We have reestablished contact with 96% of all Clone units," Padme began after Threepio had served them all Alderaanian tea. "The suddenness of Order 66 and its reversal, notwithstanding the tragedy it wreaked amongst the Jedi, has also been tough on many of our Commanders. Morale is low, and many of the Clones are questioning their purpose now that they are aware of the true extent of the inhibitor chips. General Skywalker has been in contact with many of the commanders, and we have dispatched mind healers accordingly to help ease their transition."

"What could have been a great tragedy," Bail said, more to himself than to the committee, "thankfully averted."

"We are lucky the Senate voted you emergency powers," Rush Clovis said, sitting directly across from the acting Empress. "It could have been so much worse. Imagine had it gone to someone like Amedda."

Her former lover had purposefully arrived before anyone else, positioning himself in the middle seat. He had some honor, Padme knew, but more often than not willfully allowed honor to be overridden by avarice. Their breakup had been ugly, and Padme recognized was the obvious lust in his eyes as well, though she wondered if it were something more than that. She would not trust him, but she could certainly use his former attachment to her. How far she would be willing to take it, she knew not.

"You were eager enough to vote with Amedda in the last three years," Fang Zar said disapprovingly.

"And many votes against as well, you fail to forget."

"Enough," the rotund Senator from Ryloth interjected. "We cannot afford to bicker between ourselves. This is a time that requires unity, and we must all work together with Empress Amidala to quell the crisis."

He looked at the acting Empress, expecting approval. She obliged, giving him a faint smile and a nod.  _So fast to curry favor,_ she thought _. Will you be as fast to turn as well?_

"Acting Empress," Padme corrected demurely. "I'm really still just a Senator, same as all of you. Other than that, Senator Free Taa speaks wisely. A peace won so recently can be easily lost as well." She took out a datapad and passed it along to the Senators starting with Bail on the far end. "This morning we received intelligence that the former Chancellor still seeks to sow discord even beyond the grave. He instructed agents, including even members of this august body, to cause riots and spread chaos across the Galaxy. The unrest here on Coruscant we have been able to link directly, and we are investigating further links with the riots in Mygeeto, Ryloth, Carida, Umbara, among other systems."

"Astonishing," Bail said, passing the datapad to Mon Mothma after he had finished with it. "Even in death, he seeks to destroy the Republic."

"How was this evidence obtained," Mon asked skeptically. Padme had expected trouble from her. They had been very close once, and she had counted her as much of a friend as Bail had eventually become. Their relationship had frayed over the years, however, and Padme had always wondered why. She knew the Chandrilian had not approved of her marriage with Anakin. She wasn't sure whether it was on moral grounds, or fear that she was cultivating a relationship with a powerful former Jedi and military General for her own selfish ends. Or was it jealousy? Mon Mothma herself was still single, having forsaken several relationships for the sake of her career. Did she resent Padme for not choosing to do the same? Was it fair that she would not resent a male colleague in the same way, seeing as many in the room, including Bail had significant others as well?

"We have been able to slice into the Vice-Chair's files."

"Without a warrant," Fang Zar asked, picking up on Mon's line of questioning. The battle lines had been drawn at the voting of the  _Amidala Compromise_ , the two who had voted against its advancement Padme naturally expected turbulence from.

"I am merely using the powers granted to my predecessor and now to myself," Padme replied. She took a deep breath, knowing her next words were critical. "It pains me to resort to such expediencies, but people are dying in these riots. Most of the victims are civilians and bystanders, more so than even in the war. The time for due process will come, but now we must uncover as quickly as possible the depths of Palpatine's plans. The fate of billions depends on it."

"Rodia is suffering," Farr added. "There are riots on planet, as well as rumors of droid raids. The Separatists still see it as a target, even now."

Padme nodded. "I will have General Skywalker look into this immediately, and he will dispatch a peacekeeping force if necessary." She pulled out another datapad. "We were also able to trace Palpatine's last transmissions to Mustafar."

"Mustafar?" Ister huffed in confusion. "What would he want with that rotten system?"

"It is where the Separatist Council fled to in the aftermath of Carida," Padme said, referencing the battle Anakin had won to end the Clone Wars. "As you well know by now, Palpatine was the true leader of the Separatists, directing even Count Dooku under the alias, Sidious."

"So we know where the Separatist leaders are," Farr said eagerly. "Then we can truly end this war."

Padme nodded approvingly. "General Skywalker has ordered several battalions to the system and is instituting a blockade as we speak. There is no escape. If the Separatists do not surrender, Anakin will fly there himself to escort them back to Coruscant, once the situation has calmed elsewhere."

"It must be difficult," Mon interjected, "all this burden just on yourself and General Skywalker. Surely you need help."

"Perhaps a ruling council," Garm said, as if the idea had just come to him. "A board of three to five Senators to coordinate the peacemaking efforts."

This was planned, Padme knew. It was a script designed to test her, to gauge her true intentions. She herself had directed iterations of this strategy many times in the past, especially on Palpatine. That they would use it against her now, albeit clumsily, spoke to the level to which they already distrusted her.

 _So soon_ , she questioned in her mind.  _After I've done so much to gain your trust, even though I'm betraying it now._

"That would be ideal," she said, putting on her best face which relayed genuine relief and gratitude. "The Senate can vote upon the members...although...," she frowned, feigning spontaneous consideration as well. "As I mentioned, part of what we have uncovered from the Chancellor and Vice Chair's files indicate that many members of the Senate are still complicit in conspiring against the Republic."

She scanned the room carefully as she said this, lingering her gaze ever subtly at Clovis and Free Taa. "I fear putting things to a vote so soon...especially since we have not yet identified the conspirators..."

"It would be dangerously irresponsible," the Twi'lek Senator bellowed out a little too eagerly. "You are the only one we can trust, Em...Senator Amidala, the only one with the trust of the everyone in the Senate. Everyone still loyal to the Republic, that is." He finished his sentence looking indignantly at his colleagues.

"You flatter me too much," Padme said, seemingly unsure of herself. "I'm just one woman. And trust me, I need your help." She rose, indicating that the meeting needed to conclude soon. "All of yours, and I will be calling upon you incessantly in the coming days unfortunately."

"We are at your service," Paddie said. "Anything any one of us can do to take the burden off of yourself and General Skywalker, we are too happy to oblige."

"My sincere thanks, Ister. We stand on the brink to a return to normalcy, and yet we are still so far away. My conscience cannot bear it if everything we worked for, for the hopes of a Galaxy, to be destroyed when we are so close. Not on my watch."

As the other Senators rose to leave, Mon remained seated. Having gained everyone's attention with her inaction, she spoke.

"It has come to my attention that you and Anakin met with the Jedi yesterday. I have asked several on the Council, including Master Yoda, about what transpired, and none are willing to talk."

_You've been busy, haven't you?_

"I will answer you gladly then," Padme said. "We spoke of the damages wrought by the Sith, and what we can all do to prevent the Sith from ever taking power again."

"Is that why two squadrons of clones have been placed beside the Jedi Temple? To protect them against the Sith? Pardon me, milady, but I thought the Sith had been eliminated."

The two women stared at each other, their eyes betraying nothing but their true suspicions for a second, before Padme, feeling the gaze of everyone in the room upon her, resumed her diplomatic tone. "The Jedi mean well, of course. But the knowledge that they had unknowingly served a Sith Lord for so many years has many of them highly...agitated...even the highest ranking Masters. I don't blame them; they clearly fear a repeat of Palpatine, and what further damages could be done to the Galaxy. Some have argued that the Senate cannot be trusted, as it was Palpatine's domain, and that the Jedi ought to have precedence in ensuring as to the integrity of the Republic."

"That is preposterous," Farr exclaimed, breaking protocol. "The Jedi failed, and now they blame us and wish to take power themselves?"

"The Jedi speak in riddles, and sometimes they are tough to decipher." Padme looked at the Rodian sympathetically. "It is a tough time for all of us, and none of us are blameless in what's transpired over the last three years. But the Jedi are right in one regard; rather looking backwards, we must learn from our mistakes, Senators and Jedi alike, and cast our eyes upon the future."

She comm'd Anakin after they had all left. "We should look into Orn Free Taa's accounts. Something tells me he has more than mere kickbacks to hide."

"Will do," came the answer.

"And monitor Mon Mothma's contacts as well. She has been prying around, talking to the Jedi."

"Just her? Wouldn't more of your allies be worth keeping tabs on?"

"Just her. For now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so this begins. The first chapter takes place two days after Anakin killed Sidious, and one day after the Jedi confronted Padme and pushed her towards taking the throne. As you can see, the first day they already moved to arrest Amedda as well as presumably others in Palpatine's inner circle, and are in the process of slicing through their files and learning the extent of Sidious's conspiracy and connections with the Separatists, much of which they've already released to the public.
> 
> All of the politicians mentioned thus far are canon, and I will try to make them as faithful as what I can gleam and speculate upon based on wookiepedia. I do imagine that at some point I may have to create some OC politicians and aides, etc.


	2. Two

"What in the kriff happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me." The Korun Jedi Master huffed impatiently, hobbling as he finally tracked down Obi-Wan in a small spaceport in the swamp region of Carida. "It's your kriffin padawan!"

"Language, Mace."

The two survivors of the would be Jedi Purge regarded each other, the indignation on the senior Jedi Master's face brought to a standstill only when he saw Obi-Wan palm his forehead in anguish.

"Not for many years. I saw the same holonet footage as you did."

"The Dark powers he used..."

"I felt it, yes." Indeed, he had not slept since he felt that surge of Darkness from the center of the Galaxy, from the center of the Force itself. It was true, the Dark Side had clouded much over the years, and it all made sense now with the very public revelation of the would-be Emperor's true identity...but busy as he was with the cleanup efforts on the planet, Obi-Wan still felt the explosion of Darkness greater than even the lingering one, and had known it was intimately connected with his former student, well before he had seen for himself what had happened. Anakin had not severed their bond completely since his resignation from the Order. At first, Obi-Wan thought it was an aftereffect of his battle with the Sith. It clearly was not but yet, now, he felt nothing but peace coming through that same bond. "No more though."

"He could be shielding it from you."

"Could be," he said noncommittally. "You're no stranger to dipping your toes in it, Master Windu."

"No," he said, and for once Obi-Wan wondered if this was the first time in generations anyone had witnessed the venerable master waver. "If I dip my toes in it, he immersed himself wholly."

"He did. Master Koon relayed you his briefing this morning, didn't he?"

"I saw." The third Jedi presence on the planet had been thankfully isolated aboard his own fighter shuffling between two bases while his companions had been busy dodging the sudden onslaught of the Clone Troopers. When it all stopped just as abruptly as it began, Plo had managed to rendezvous with headquarters before anyone else. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, it was their own Supreme Commander who briefed him on what happened, about how the late Sith Lord had set about an order for the extinction of the Jedi, and how his own wife had been the one to reverse it. The rest of his briefing was fairly mundane considering everything that had just occurred in the last twenty-four standard hours: the Clones were no longer a threat, work with them to keep up the cleanup efforts, make sure aid gets through to the cities that had suffered bombardment during the battle, and isolate and destroy any remaining droid presence in the system.

"If your fears, our fears, are true, it's rather incongruous he chose to save the Jedi." The younger master walked over the large tree roots towards his own speeder, and Mace noticed that as he held on to the tree trunks for support, he was clearly favoring his right shoulder. So Obi-Wan's survival of the attack had not been easy either.

"And position himself with supreme power."

"Rather a roundabout way of doing it, no? If I know Anakin, he was never one for grand plans containing massive layers of deception."

Mace creaked his neck to the left and looked about their surroundings. "Ahem. This battle?"

"Ah," Obi-Wan said, making the considerable effort to stroke his beard with his familiar left hand. "Yes, he kept us all in the dark, didn't he?"

He activated his speeder, and as the door opened, he looked back at the Korun master. "Whatever his intentions are, I intend to find out, sooner or later."

"But you'll give him the benefit of the doubt."

From his briefest of hesitations, Mace felt he pain and anguish emanate from the younger master. He had already suffered so many betrayals already, each escalating upon the previous one: the betrayal of abandonment from his first Padawan, the betrayal of crimes against both the Jedi and the Republic by his second, and finally, the original former student twisting the vibro-blade by embracing, even temporarily, the antithesis of everything they stood for. Then, the pain vanished, and there came only peace from the bearded master. "It's the Jedi way, is it not," he quipped.

Mace nodded. He respected Obi-Wan enough to trust his judgment, even if both of them refused to give voice to their fear that it would be clouded by the bond he still shared with a man who now clearly lay beyond their control.

* * *

It wasn't that it was hard to meditate on Coruscant, but it was different. Certainly there was life on the planet of trillions, especially compared to a star destroyer, but the life here was different than the tranquil presences he felt on Naboo, or even on a place such as Cato Neimoidia after a siege. The life forces on the capitol world were almost overwhelming, the sheer  _sentiency_  of it, and Anakin struggled to avoid being distracted, much less invasive, as he spread his awareness into the Living Force. But at least the Force was clear now, its full potential available to him after the final destruction of the Sith.

He concentrated on one plant in their apartment, a small flower bush native to his wife's planet. Instantly, its life force brought him back to memories of lush waterfalls and fragrant meadows. One memory in particular came to mind, a sadder memory. It was night, and he could hear both the distant echoes of the falls of Theed and the fire crackling as it merged Qui-Gon Jinn, the one Jedi who had truly believed in him, into the netherworlds of the Force. What would Qui-Gon think of him now, he wondered, now that he was in open opposition with the Jedi?

" _I'd be proud of you_ ," a long gone raspy voice echoed through the night. " _You fulfilled the prophecy, after all._ "

Anakin blinked. The fire was burnt out, and it was just the two of them standing on the palace veranda, illuminated only by the glint of the moon and the light emanating off the ghostly form of the dead man.

"Master Qui-Gon...," he looked down, studying his own hands. One durasteel, one worn from the rigors of war. Wherever he was, whatever time he was in, he was not the child he had been that night. "Is this real?"

" _As real as the Force itself, young one._ "

Anakin looked away in shame. As much as he resented the Jedi now, he could not harbor any similar feelings for the man that had freed him, that had been so kind to him as a child.

" _You freed yourself, Anakin. With your deeds and your kindness. And as much as I hate to admit this, I told your mother that I was not there to free the slaves. Had I not sensed your abilities, your potential, I would have left you by._ "

He shook his head, still unsure whether this projection was real, or a figment of his own imagination, his unconscious self trying to justify his actions.

"I killed the Sith," he finally said, "by using the Dark Side. I rejected what you taught me, what Obi-Wan taught me. And Sidious wasn't the first time."

" _I know. Tatooine. I was there._ "

"You were?"

" _I tried to speak to you then, to stop you. But you couldn't hear me. Or you refused to._ "

"So how can I hear you now? I'm no longer a Jedi. Why do you even bother? Do you wish to plead their case?" Hints of bitterness crept back into his voice.

" _You chose to open your mind to the Force, to pay heed to the Living around you._ "

"I felt Luke and Leia. Before the last campaign, when I opened up...but not like this."

" _No_ ," Qui-Gon said sadly. " _This is something different. It requires training, which I began long before my own death, long before the Force led me to you. It still requires training, even now. The Force provides for those who seek it, in life and beyond._ "

The ghost walked, or more accurately, floated towards the young former Jedi.  _"I cannot tell you about the Jedi. I am not here to judge you on what you and the Queen plan going forward. The Force is beyond such trivial things._ "

"The Jedi are trivial? The Republic? Democracy?" He was thoroughly confused and again, he wondered if this was not his own mind making things up.

" _What difference is there between Loyalist and Separatist? A king and a pauper? A Jedi or a slave? Or even, the Chosen One, and a simple bantha. The Force does not discriminate amongst its own. What matters only is life._ "

"Spoken from a dead person." His snide remark hid his own hopes. If death was not the end, then what possibilities were there for him? For Padme? He still felt the essences of his children if he tried; could he speak to them? What about his mother?

Again, the ghost read his mind. " _They are here. I can commune with them...in a way, but not how you think._ "

"Oh," was all he could say in return.

" _They are proud of you too. They will always love you, and will always be with you. As have I._ "

"What about Obi-Wan," Anakin asked. "Have you...communicated with him as you have with me?"

Thoughts of his old master had stayed with him every since his defeat of Sidious. Anakin would do whatever he had to do to protect his wife; now, it was the two of them against a Republic and the Jedi, and Anakin would act accordingly, but he still wondered (feared) how Obi-Wan would react once he found out. It should not matter, he was no longer his master, but it did.

" _Surprisingly, Obi-Wan is less receptive to me than you are._ "

"How so? He loved you. He venerated you. He would never admit it to me, but I know how long he mourned you."

" _He was a better student than I was a teacher. And an even better Jedi, yet he is limited in his vision because of that._ "

"I understand." The Jedi rejected the concepts of ghosts, of retaining one's consciousness after death. He had asked, he had researched many old holocrons in the Temple archives, especially after his mother had passed.

" _But that time approaches, sooner than any of us can expect, with the many changes now happening._ "

"Will you...," Anakin looked around, unsure of whether he could bring himself to ask the question, "will you put in a word for me. Tell him whatever I do, whatever happens in the coming days...I'm not what the Jedi think I am."

" _I will tell him what I can. No more, no less._ "

Anakin nodded. It was not the answer he was hoping for, but it was still a much better reception than he got from Master Yoda and the council several days ago.

" _Anakin_ ," the ghost said sternly, his demeanor more serious than it had been. " _You have only begun to grasp the possibilities of the Force, how it transcends what any of us presume to know or believe. Don't think that because you mastered the Dark Side once, that you can continue to tempt it_."

He swallowed, not wanting another confrontation. "I will do what I have to do. For Padme. For us."

" _What you have to do? Or what you want to do?_ "

Anakin shook his head. If he knew the answer, he did not want to give voice to it.

The ghost's expression softened. " _Even in death, we have so much to learn, much less in life._ "

With those words, everything disappeared, and Anakin found himself back in his apartment and sensed his wife was waking.

* * *

Though most of them hid their surprise at seeing him in Padme's office, Anakin could sense their emotions easily through the Force. Though he could admit that he no longer hated politicians as he once did, Sidious excepting, he was still not looking forward to having to deal with them. He knew he had no choice, however; Empire was the bed they made, and it would be what consumed his wife in the years to come. Anakin could at least, for her sake, try to share and understand her burden.

The acting Empress announced that her husband would brief the committee on the latest military updates, and Anakin dryly ran through a list of planets that seen conflict in the last day, what its status was, and what he was going to undertake to resolve each crisis. The Senators listened attentively, anxious as each one of them were to understand what the General's role was to be in the coming months. With the bulk of the briefing out of the way, Anakin looked to his wife, as if awaiting permission for something.

"Go ahead, General," Padme said softly, even sadly, just as they had rehearsed. "We cannot withhold the truth from the Senate."

"Very well," Anakin said. He entered a code in the holoprojector, and several new worlds appeared. At the same time, the acting Empress activated her comlink, and the holoprojections of both Masters Yoda, Adi Gallia, as well as Mace Windu from Carida, graced the room. She ignored their disapproving looks, especially from Yoda.

"What you are about to hear must stay within the confines of this room," Anakin said, knowing that more than one Senator present would start gossiping the moment they left. Words and information were, after all, the main currency of the Senate. "We have received several disturbing reports of Jedi abandoning their posts since the death of the former Chancellor."

"Attacked, we were," Yoda interjected, "by the Clones. Over, the war is. Rightly concerned, many are, over the direction of the new order. Over their own safety."

"The Jedi are still sworn to serve, until instructed otherwise," Anakin responded rigidly.

"Master Yoda," Padme said authoritatively, "if you feel that the Jedi Order can no longer properly serve the Republic, you need to inform the Senators present as quickly as possible. Too much is at stake."

"Already," Anakin continued, "many sensitive operations have been disrupted by the abandonment of knights and masters alike. Many units are no longer functioning at peak capacity without their commanders present, delaying vital aid distribution and cleanup efforts. In the worst cases, remnants of Separatist loyalists as well as agents of the former Chancellor are taking advantage of the chaos to inflict more harm on both military and civilian personnel."

Mon Mothma looked skeptically at the image of the Jedi. "Master Yoda, is this true, what General Skywalker is saying?"

"Unfortunately, it is," Mace replied instead. "While the situation on Carida is mostly in hand, not all systems have the benefit of three Masters on the Council."

"This is incompetence, and it's unacceptable," the Rodian Senator Onaconda Farr interrupted.

"Even after all we've been through, the Senate has its affairs in order," Orn Free Taa added smugly. "It is disappointing that the Jedi cannot say the same."

"The war is over," Farr said. "There can be no more excuses."

"Our resources are strained beyond our breaking point," Shaak Ti protested. "We are still accounting for all our members out in the field. We still don't even have a full death count from the Clone attack!"

"The betrayal of the Clones was unprecedented and unprovoked," Bail Organa said, facing down the other Senators. "The Jedi have served the Republic ably for millennia, but we cannot expect perfection out of them, especially after such a comprehensive tragedy. Allowances must be made."

"I agree, Bail," Padme said firmly, her tone accommodating yet commanding at the same time. "We must take into account the past, but focus on what needs to be done going forward. If the resources of the Jedi are stretched, then we must replace them, and quickly."

"What would your  _replacements_  be, Senator Amidala," Fang Zar asked suspiciously, emphasizing her former title.

"I have a list of officers," Anakin said, pulling out a datapad, "Clone and career alike, who have proven themselves capable through the course of the war. Where authority is lacking, I am placing them in full command of the situation. I ask full authority given to these officers within these jurisdictions, the same as you would grant a Jedi commander, to act as they see fit to save the peace."

"This sounds suspiciously like a military takeover," Fang said. "The Jedi served to keep the balance between the military and the civil."

"It's no different than the system we've had in place for the last nine months," Anakin said. "Every officer still reports ultimately to me. Only, where the Jedi have abandoned their duties, they will no longer be given charge there."

"Even in peace time," Bail challenged, "we will keep the machinery of war?"

"Obviously we are not at risk of another full scale war breaking out," Padme countered, seemingly mediating between her husband and her friend, "but the death throes of those who caused the Clone Wars will be unnecessarily prolonged if we do not act decisively. Lives are at stake here."

"Lives are at stake," Mon echoed sardonically. "That seems to be your go-to line these days, does it not?"

Anakin looked defensively at his wife. He did not appreciate the Chandrilian Senator's tone, and he sensed the hurt in his wife at her words, even though this was what they both expected and prepared for. He remained silent, however, as he knew that any acts of petty anger would further exacerbate the situation to their detriment.

"I say that because it's true," Padme said, exasperated. "Or have you been sitting in these safe confines for so long, you no longer understand the very real consequences of our decisions here, Senator Mothma?"

"I agree with the acting Empress," Farr said. "My homeworld has felt the consequences of our inaction too many times now."

"As have Ryloth," Free Taa added, though Padme doubted his sincerity, knowing that the Twi'lek Senator had not returned to his home planet in years.

"This sets a dangerous precedent," Mace said. "To put the Jedi under the very charge of the Clones that tried to kill us."

"Only in specific instances where the Jedi abandoned their duty," Anakin said. "Some would consider those Jedi to have gone rogue. Deserters even."

"General Skywalker has never failed us," Ister Paddie remarked. "I will place my trust in his record."

"What assurances, have we, of the safety of the Jedi?" Unspoken by Yoda were the threats Padme had made in this very office, when she had been pushed to the brink of reordering their extermination. The acting Empress smiled confidently at the question. That the diminutive Jedi Master did not bring up to the Senators gathered what had transpired during that fateful meeting spoke to his full awareness of his disadvantage. Support of the Jedi was dwindling in the populace, in the Senate, and even here, within the Loyalist Committee, they would not likely form a majority. Even Bail and Mon, the greatest advocates of the Order apart from herself, could hardly abide by the attempt of the Jedi to arrest an innocent man, a war hero to boot and the slayer of the Sith. Not when he was clearly sitting here in front of them, unchanged from the General Skywalker they had known for years.

"Every assurance so long as the Jedi remain faithful to the Republic," Padme answered. She looked over to Anakin. "General Skywalker, proceed with your plans."

Anakin nodded formally. "Thank you."

The acting Empress held her hand out, signalling that she had more to say.

"Instruct the army to locate and apprehend all deserting officers, including Jedi. They will be brought into custody and held to account for their actions."

Even Clovis seemed surprised by her brusque order. "Surely the Jedi can police their own?"

"The Jedi serve the Republic," Padme said harshly, allowing Anakin to glare at the man. Before anyone else could voice their opinions, Padme continued. "And you will find that there is more at stake than mere desertion." She spoke into her comlink. "Dorme. Please allow in the joint delegation from Mon Calamari."

Moments later, Meena Tills and Tundra Dowmeia, the latter Mon Calamari's Quarren Senator, stepped into the office, taking the last two available chairs available. Padme did not need to put on an act to relay to them her sadness and dismay, those emotions being entirely genuine. Still, she knew today she was crossing lines she had never thought possible, taking advantage of the misfortunes of others and translating them to her benefit. Was this so different from what Palpatine had done? What difference was there between her and her predecessor? She did not cause these tragedies, she rationalized, and she felt guilt, an emotion she knew was beyond the late Sith Chancellor, but still she understood that these mitigating circumstances did not absolve her, not completely.

"What I am about to tell you now is even more confidential than what General Skywalker relayed earlier. Its secrecy is crucial, for the integrity of the Republic, and the Jedi." She looked directly at Orn Free Taa as she said this, again knowing that he would likely be the first to blab. "Meena. Tundra. I'm so sorry for what has been happening on your homeworld."

They all knew that the unrest on the aquatic planet had been resulting in more casualties, at a greater scale, than most, despite the presence of several Clone battalions.

"It is hard to comprehend the cruelty," Meena said sadly, "that my homeworld is bearing the brunt of what remains of this awful conflict."

"Things are not what they seem, Senator Tills." Anakin activated an image of a Besalisk male. "Jedi Master Pong Krell was placed in command of the sector following its recent liberation from the Separatists. It appears, however, that he was secretly aiding the Separatists even before the battle at Carida, intentionally sabotaging the war efforts, killing Clones and local inhabitants alike. Unfortunately, preoccupied as I was with the Carida campaign, the events on Mon Calamari escaped my attention, and I take full responsibility for it."

"Nonsense," Ister remarked. "You were busy winning the war."

"Nevertheless, I cannot forgive myself for letting this brutality escape my attention."

"Is this true, Master Yoda," Bail asked, horrified. "This is more than mere panic or desertion."

"Clouded, the Force is around Master Krell," the Jedi Grandmaster was to admit before the politicians. "Not well, his mind may be. Fallen, he may have, to the Dark Side."

"With all due respect, Master Yoda," Mon Mothma said, unhappy she had to confront the Grandmaster, "this is a disaster. Who can we trust, if not the Jedi?"

"A disease, the Dark Side is," Yoda said, looking pointedly at Anakin. "Plagues the Galaxy it does, whether it touches Jedi, or politician, or commander. Safe, none of us are, while we dwell in its presence."

Padme sneered inwardly. Even in the face of his own failure, he would continue to hurl accusations at her husband. While this was not unexpected, it strengthened her resolve to do what she needed to do.

"None are exempt from accountability," she said coldly and evenly. "Whether Jedi or Clone or Senator. Justice will be delivered for all."

"So many deserve to face the hand of justice," Farr said, agreeing with her, "after everything that has happened these last three years."

"Fortunately, Commander Cody and his men have been able to apprehend Krell," Anakin said impassively, as if the short exchange and silent battle the Jedi Grandmaster and his wife had not occurred. "I have sent an additional division to ensure to his containment. If I hear of any further trouble, I will go myself to take control of the situation and bring Master Krell back to Coruscant."

"If what you are saying is true," Senator Dowmeia said, voice ashen by the new revelation, "then the Jedi have much to answer for."

"If Master Krell is guilty of what you have accused him of," Mace said, "then yes, I guarantee you we will make sure he does answer for his crimes."

Padme nodded sadly. It was interesting that the Jedi would be harsher on a man who had destroyed the Sith, compared to one who was now heedlessly slaughtering innocents. "I will not hold the entire Jedi Order at fault for the crimes of a few. But we must learn from our failures and put in new controls to ensure something like this cannot happen again. The first step is to hold all Jedi accountable only to Republic law, and to the Senate."

"Senator Amidala," Mace protested, "with all due respect, the Jedi have taken care of our own for over a thousand years."

Mon looked astonished. "This is incredible, Padme. You would presume to singlehandedly shatter the system and precedents we have had in place for over a thousand years."

"Look where we are now, Senator Mothma," Padme said coldly, pointedly enunciating the woman's title to highlight her informal breach of protocol. "The system is already broken. It is our duty not to reassemble a broken machine, but to fix it into a better one. My decision is final."

Bail Organa was long dismayed by the ongoing hostility between the two women he had counted as valuable friends and allies, but this certainty, this inflexibility, was something he had not expected from Padme. "Your decision," he questioned.

She knew she had the votes, whether within the committee assembled, or in the Senate at large, but it was time to signify that matters regarding the Jedi, regarding high crimes, were no longer subject to consensus. "By the authority granted me from the Senate, yes, this is my decision to make."

She would remember the looks of betrayal from her former friends for a long time to come. Some relationships she thought she could still heal, though they would require her greatest skills as a politician. While others, such as her bond with Mon Mothma, had long been fraying, Padme knew that this moment marked its final breaking point.

* * *

It happened much earlier than she anticipated. It did not affect their plans significantly, but Padme thought she could move the timetable forward to their favor. Not long after their meeting, she had assembled a full gathering of the Senate for the first time since Palpatine's death, and her reign as Empress, however temporary it was to be. Anakin gave the same briefing he had given the committee, updated with the latest developments, but omitting anything relating to rogue or missing Jedi. That did not matter, however, as word had spread, and the vast majority of the questions she fielded concerned the ancient Order, including rumors about them massacring civilians. She downplayed all the urgent inquires, asserting that it was not yet appropriate for her to comment on the situation before they were resolved.

As the commotion died down, the Mon Calamari pod emerged from the din. Without the order of a Vice-Chair, the Senate session had been free flowing, but it also gave the acting Empress, acting as her own speaker, more control over which seats to recognize, without the buffer of an intermediary.

"Senators Tills, Dowmeia. You have the floor."

"Many thanks, your excellency," Meena said, speaking first for her delegation. "As my fellow Senators no doubt recognize, our treasured home still lies under siege by all. We represent the other side of the treachery which has devastated the Galaxy from all sides."

As Senators yelled out, jeering the late Chancellor and the Separatists, the Quarren Senator continued. "In this dark time, we have found that we can place our trust only in the hands of two. General Anakin Skywalker, who won the war and brought the vile traitors to justice."

The jeers transformed into applause and cheering, strengthening as Senators anticipated her next words.

"And our acting Empress Amidala, who has shown time and time again her concern for every planet, every system, no matter how far or obscure. She has acted quickly and boldly with the temporary powers granted to her by the Senate. She is the only light in the darkness, showing us the way, and she is our only hope."

More cheering, ever louder, and Padme motioned gently with her hands to try and quell the applause.

"We cannot afford anyone else to lead us," Tundra Dowmeia added in once it was possible to hear again. "And we cannot afford the chance that anyone else would. I propose that the Senate acts now and makes permanent the Empress's position, so that she can guide us through these troubled times and back into the light."

"I second the motion," Onaconda Farr yelled through the applause which, with the Mon Calamari Senator's audacious request, was met by considerable skepticism as well. "I have worked with Senator Amidala for many years. She has always spoken up against tyranny in every form. There is no one else I trust to continue to do so, and as Empress I know her judgments will be wise and benevolent."

 _So now it begins_ , Padme thought. Bearing her best expression of shock and dismay, she looked over towards the pods of Bail and Mon Mothma, trying to convey to them that this new development was wholly unexpected and unwanted. The surprise was not false, as she had not anticipated the proposal so quickly from the Mon Calamarian delegation. It also did not surprise her when the Chandrilian Senator motioned to speak next.

"Senator Mothma has the floor," Padme said, her voice trailing off, as if she was near speechless from what had just transpired.

"Senators," Mon exclaimed. Even though she expected her opposition, Padme was surprised to hear her speak up so soon. Mon had never been one for grand speeches, and Padme had expected Fang, or even Bail, to have been the ones to speak first against an Empire.

"I agree with my esteemed colleagues," Mon continued once the rabble had died down. "The great deeds of Senator Amidala have long been etched in history. I trust her judgment, as do all of us, but...," she had to raise her hands outward to fend off the incoming jeers. "...but our Republic is grounded upon the principle that no one being is infallible, or have we forgotten so soon?"

The boos grew louder, but Padme spoke up. "Please! Senators! We must allow everyone their voice. Senator Mothma, please continue."

Mon grimaced, as if to acknowledging to her younger colleague,  _well played_.

"I trust her judgment now, even though, even the great Senator Amidala has given in to expediency in the past. I trust her judgment now, despite the fact that she allowed her fears to control her and acted rashly, as many have said, in rushing to depose the honorable former Chancellor Valorum, and put a Sith Lord in his place. After all, she was just a young child, was she not? And her planet was in jeopardy, so Queen Amidala acted, even at the risk that her actions would put countless more planets in the line of fire years later."

The boos increased in intensity, many Senators protesting that she could not have predicted the Clone Wars ten years in advance. Padme spoke up again. "Senators! Decorum! We must allow the Senator from Chandrila the floor! We must allow a voice to all, whether we agree with it or not!"

Having not lost composure, Mon continued. "I trust Senator Amidala's judgment, even when she allowed it to lapse again, in taking advantage of her position of authority to seduce and bed a young child, placing into jeopardy both their duties and obligations to the Republic. Because she is human, and why should she not be allowed to love and follow her heart, even though she was a Senator and he a Jedi forbidden to form any attachments, and too young to be forced in making such a monumental decision?"

Padme seethed, not just because of what her old friend had said, but because many of the Senators now booing the defamation against her marriage had been the very ones who jeered her the loudest when their secret had first been revealed.

"I wasn't that young." She felt her husband tense next to her, grumbling, and guilty for his complicity in the accusations against his wife. Padme whispered quietly to him. "It's okay, Anakin. We had to expect that this would come up."

It was comforting, as she noted the reactions of Bail and Fang and Garm, their obvious discomfort that it had gotten to the point where her personal life was now being used against her; everyone, even the noblest politicians, had secrets to hide. Straightening her body, Padme spoke up again. "Order! What Senator Mothma says is grounded in truth. We must let her continue!"

"Thank you, Senator Amidala," Mon said, feigning the sweetest cordiality. "Despite everything, despite the fact that she was willing to chance the destruction of the Republic for the sake of her grand compromise, I still trust her judgment. But not as an autocrat. Not as a dictator. If her judgment were perfect, then maybe...maybe...what the honorable Senators from Mon Calamari and Rodia propose could be tenable under these very trying circumstances. But as we see clearly now, no one is perfect. Not even the Jedi, and certainly no one member of our great institution, however pure or venerable. Which is why we have this institution, and in lieu of infallibility, we must trust the wisdom of those who came before us, and the system they set into place, over one individual, however wise and noble."

As screams from both sides rang out in the chamber, Lott Dod's pod emerged. "I second Senator Mothma's motion against the Empress."

Not for the first time Padme wondered how the Trade Federation still maintained a seat in the Senate, but she could not deny that he had proven surprisingly useful just now.  _See who you made your bed with_ , she thought, staring at Mon in satisfaction.  _You now tie your name and your vote with the Separatists and those who ravage planets for profit_. Padme also set in her mind a reminder to do something about the Neimoidian Senator, now that she could no longer see any further use from him.

The votes arrived quickly, with nearly two thirds of the chamber voting for a permanent Empress. Padme was satisfied with the margin, as it gave her plenty of leeway for her plans for the months to come.

"My fellow Senators," the would-be sovereign announced once the final tally was in. "I am beyond flattered by your faith and trust in me."

She surveyed the hundreds of Senators in the chamber, marveling at how easier this was, now that she stood in Palpatine's place. She had gone within years, months even, from a beleaguered pariah to an absolute ruler, all subject to the same mindless fools surrounding her, well-intentioned as many of them were. She picked her next words carefully, knowing that they could be used against her in the future.

"I fully agree with my friend and colleague, Senator Mothma. My judgment is not perfect. I have made mistakes in the past, and will make mistakes in the future. Though...," she grasped her husband's hand and held it up, clasping it tightly for everyone to see, "I will never apologize for choosing to love those I love."

That elicited the loudest roars of approval thus far through the session, and Padme could not help but revel in the galactic validation of her love.  _See what you tried to do, Jedi_ , she thought.  _Are you watching? Do you see that the Galaxy and most sentient beings will always choose love over doctrine?_

"My judgment is not perfect, I grant you," she continued as the uproar died down. "But I trusted my judgement five years ago, when the people of Naboo voted to extend indefinitely my tenure as their Queen. I have not once regretted that decision, and now, as then, I must decline, with the utmost respect, this responsibility which you chose to convey upon me."

Shock rang through the Senate Chambers. They had voted to create an Empire, to crown an Empress, to found perchance a dynasty...and she declined! It was unheard of! Who had the self-control and wherewithal to do such a thing?! Only the most selfless, many were now saying.

"I must refuse the permanency of my position because I still trust in this august body and its members. I trust that the late Supreme Chancellor has not corrupted the Republic to the point of no return. I trust that we can still do good, that we can still bring about peace, that we can still enrich the lives of trillions, without dismantling the institutions of the past, even though they have failed us. The Republic is near its breaking point, due to its own weight, due to its flaws, its corruption, but it would not have come so close had the forces who conspired against it not been aided by the most unspeakable malice this Galaxy has ever seen. With that ordeal now behind us, we must hope that democracy is still worth saving. As Senators, we must not give up just yet. We must try to fix the machine which we broke ourselves."

As the hundreds of Senators burst into chaotic chatter and debate following the end of her speech, Padme, still clutching her husband's hand, smiled inwardly in satisfaction. She surveyed the Loyalist pods. Relief seemed to set into Bail's face, and even Fang Zar seemed satisfied with the latest turned of events, but Mon seemed strangely dismayed in the glow of her surprising victory.  _So quickly she catches on_ , Padme thought.  _She knows the game well. Well enough to be dangerous_. In declining the throne, Padme had cited only hope, a temporal concept, rather than any grand principles or permanent loyalties to democracy which would commit her in the future. She condemned the Republic with her words, even as she acted to keep its corpse afloat for one more day. And in declining, it was clear to all that the future of the Republic was subject entirely to her will, and nothing else. Mon had won a stay, nothing more, and stood to lose on a grander scale when the inevitable vote happened again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the Battle of Carida (described more fully in Heirs), Anakin left Obi-Wan, Plo, and Mace back on the planet to handle the cleanup. He himself rushed back to Coruscant not only just to see his wife, but also because she asked him to speak against Palpatine in the Senate, and would have figured 3 Jedi Masters were enough to compensate for his absence...not expecting Order 66 to happen.
> 
> The two Senators from Mon Calamari are taken from Canon. Obviously Pong Krell went rogue here as well as canon, and same as before, the Clones were able to subdue him on their own. He's still alive, however, which means he will have to face justice before the acting Empress soon.
> 
> A not so subtle nod to Shakespeare's Caesar in the last scene, as Padme refuses the crown.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the fate of the Jedi is discussed and decided.

The capitol world was ablaze with the stunning news of the evening. That Palpatine had plotted for generations to proclaim himself an Emperor, yet the Senate had willingly handed the same crown to Senator Amidala, and she had voluntarily declined, made it clear to all the contrast between the two politicians from Naboo. For once, it seemed like those on all political persuasions were echoing each other in agreement. Those who still held true to the principles of the Republic rejoiced in her rejection of temptation as a proud reflection and affirmation of their own values, values that were fast diminishing in the chaotic state of the Galaxy.

Most of Palpatine's support had been born of the fear of war and chaos, taking comfort in a powerful central authority in such a troubled time. Many of his adherents felt no personal loyalty to the man himself, especially as his warm grandfatherly persona waned in the latter stages of the war, and those who had supported him fervently in the beginning began to harbor personal feelings of distaste towards the aging politician even as they acknowledged his necessity.

While many in the upper echelons of the Republic supported him blindly out of their own interests and panicked once his true nature was revealed, swathes of sentients across the Republic, while feeling a keen sense of betrayal, chalked it up to yet another symptom of a system that was fundamentally broken. Between corruption and a blind eye towards the crimes of high ranking politicians and their allies, what was a Sith Lord but yet another title for the same disease? In the context of the collusion between crime syndicates, both ones posing as entities such as the Trade Federation, or ones that held no such pretense like the Black Sun, what further difference did it make for the Republic to invent its own enemy and carry out the most devastating war in recent memory? Wasn't it the natural escalation of the status quo?

For those who would have been sympathetic to an Emperor anyway, it did not matter that the acting Empress still clung on to the veneer of democracy. She was acting decisively, cutting through Senate debates just as efficiently as her husband had through the Separatist armies, intervening quickly and ruthlessly to secure the Galaxy. Whatever her title, whether it be Empress, or Super-Supreme-Chancellor, or something in between, she was  _doing_ , and doing well, and taking power away from those who had ruined the Republic in the first place, whether it be the spineless politicians, the faceless bureaucrats, the naive Jedi, or the scheming Sith. Even on some of the most fervently Separatist worlds such as Onderon or Geonosis, the sentiment was clear that, unlike everyone who had come before her, Senator Amidala actually  _cared_.

The subject of the Galaxy's speculation was less certain in her assessment of the political equilibrium, knowing that she maintained her current popularity only because she straddling the middle, so that those on either side could project onto her their own beliefs. Sooner or later, she would have to act, and with her honeymoon over, her margin of error was certain to narrow. It wasn't that she feared losing power; her absolute control over the Clone Army saw to that, though few mentioned the fact as even those most skeptical of her motives, such as Senator Mothma, could not bring themselves to believe that she would fall so low. She would do what she must, but Padme hoped that she would not have to resort to such bitter means.

"Ani," she asked softly. It comforted her to have him next to her. They had requisitioned two small desks from the Senate building, and luckily their bedroom was big enough it fit both side by side. This arrangement allowed them to work casually as they did now in their night robes, were either one of them or both not ready to sleep yet.

"Yes love," Anakin answered, looking up from one of his datapads. They had both served the Republic for so long now, but Padme savored the feeling of, for the first time, working in tandem with her husband, those occasions they both stumbled into the same battles together notwithstanding.

"What do you think of Senator Farr?"

Anakin paused. Politics were her arena, just as the military was his, but it flattered him that she would seek his opinion on her area of expertise.

"I think he is honorable. He means well, and he genuinely cares for his fellow Rodians. Though I was surprised to see him speak up in the Senate today."

"Why," Padme asked, pushing her husband. "You are barely acquainted with the man. Why did it surprise you?" They were a team now, and it was important that he understood her world. Anakin was not dim, and were he to know the inner workings of the government just as well as he knew a droid or starship, his judgment, buttressed by his Force insight, would be invaluable.

He thought again, before speaking. "There is a...timidity to him. He wants very much to help...to speak his mind. But every time he does...I feel him...withdraw into himself, as if by reflex."

"I have noticed that as well," Padme said, glad they were on the same page. "He certainly did not like what Palpatine was doing in the end, but we could hardly convince him to speak up. He refused to commit to even a meeting in private with Bail and Mon and I, though he would often go out of his way, in his own way, to help us behind the scenes. He could take the temperature of the Senate, gauge the opinions of those we were not close to, whose feelings we were unsure of. But we could never persuade him to speak and lobby on our behalf."

"He must really believe in you then. Or very worried about the situation on Rodia."

"He has placed himself in a position to lead," Padme said confidently, "though I feel he will shrink back yet again. Why do you think he would be so inconsistent?"

Anakin studied the Senator's file on his datapad. "There is not much information on his public profile. Particularly in his early life. Or regarding his family. Do you think..."

Sensing her husband's hesitation, she encouraged him. "Go on."

"It must be something in his past. Something he wishes to hide. If he puts his name out there too much, he worries that it would come out. Either that, or blackmail. Someone, or something, has leverage over him, preventing him from acting fully on his conscience."

Padme nodded approvingly. "Both very credible theories. Onaconda may be a great ally to us. But we must know his secrets and assess how much of a threat they pose to his reputation. Or ours."

"I'll look into it. But..."

"You can tell me." His fear at speaking up concerned Padme. Here was a man who had commanded Jedi and Clones and won a galactic war almost singlehandedly, and yet, when it came to running the day to day of their empire, he acted more like a nervous schoolboy afraid to disappoint his schoolmaster, despite the fact that they sat here alone in the confines of their own bedroom. Anakin had told her about his life in those first days as a Jedi Padawan after the Battle of Theed, but the stories mainly his missions and the firefights he and Obi-Wan got into. Obi-Wan had admitted to her that he had not been the best teacher to Anakin early on in their relationship, and Padme wondered what the older Jedi had done, in those formative years of his life, to have somehow brushed away at his self-confidence in everything but fighting.

"I'm not sure I have the resources at this point. The Clones are great at many things, but running some of these investigations take a kind of...independence. That not all of them are capable yet. And I don't trust the Republic Intelligence either. We've just started vetting their personnel, and until that is accomplished, I don't know how many of them were under the influence of Palpatine."

She placed a hand gently on his. "Anakin, if I'm overwhelming you, tell me."

"It's not that," he protested, blushing. "You've already done so much for me. I don't want to let you down. I can handle this."

She aimed her eyes at her husband, hoping to assure him. "You need help. I need help. Don't be afraid to say it."

An idea came to his mind. "If we can move up our timetable for the Jedi..."

"What do you have in mind," Padme asked, intrigued. She saw the spark of life in his eye, the same spark that had driven him to build a protocol droid at the tender age of nine. She needed that inquisitive mind, not the one the Jedi had beaten down in his years of training.

"More accurately, who. She is in their custody right now."

"Ahsoka," Padme remembered. Her husband's former Padawan had been convicted in a Republic court martial for a deplorable attack on the Jedi Temple, though Padme had been convinced of her innocence, enough so that, despite being in the middle of her negotiations for her compromise, she had made the time to testify on her behalf. "I wish I could have done more for her. But why is she held by the Jedi? Tarkin had all but forced them to cede her over to Republic jurisdiction."

"Apparently the Council did intervene on her behalf, though after it was too late. They feared the conditions she would be held in under the Republic, and the possibility of reprisals. I found documentation earlier today that an agreement had been reached, that she would be held by the Jedi until her execution."

"Which clearly will not happen."

"No," Anakin said, looking guilty. "I wasn't even made aware of this whole affair until I got back from Carida. As Supreme Commander, I could have put an end to this charade."

"But you can fix it now. You think she can be of assistance?"

"She was always good at research and gathering intelligence. You know how bright she is."

"The question then is would she help  _us_ ," Padme said, thinking of her friendship with the young Togrutan, which had ironically strengthened after her husband had left the Order. She would not force Ahsoka into anything, but if the girl could be convinced...

He pulled out a datapad. "We have more against the Jedi. I received a tip from Haruun Kal. Apparently Krell was not the only Jedi to go mad during the war. Artoo was able to piece together the rest."

Padme took the pad from Anakin and studied it, gasping when she realized the implications. "Depa Billaba. She's a member of their Council. And the Jedi are hiding this?"

"They've only recently discovered her crimes on Haruun Kal, and did not bring her back to the Temple until after Carida. Things had gone to Sith hell by then." He frowned, wondering why he would be defending the Jedi. "They've had ample time since Carida, however. The fact that they still kept this to themselves means they do not respect your authority."

"They are wise not to give me anything to use against them," Padme contemplated, grinning as she continued to read the information. "They gambled it would not come to light. They gambled and they lost."

She entered in her instructions in her secure comlink. "Very well. I've instructed Jar-Jar and Dorme to leak to the holonews footage of Krell from Mon Calamari. Anything you receive from Haruun Kal you can send to them as well." Setting down her comlink, she looked up to see her husband staring at her in some type of awe, a not too uncommon occurrence, though it still made her blush sometimes. "What?"

"This is nice," he said. Their lines of work had always been something that separated them, and Anakin never bothered to maintain the patience to understand the intricacies his wife had to deal with in the political realm. It did not help that their opinions of the Chancellor differed until the very end. Seeing his wife in action now, knowing that every move they made was integral to their own lives and their future together, he was finally learning to appreciate her skills. His indifference to democracy notwithstanding, it truly hurt him for her sake that this appreciation did not come until Padme had been forced to abandon her principles. "We work well as a team."

She yawned, her exhaustion finally catching up with her. "It's good that we do. We never had a chance to before, you being stuck in the war and me in the Senate. Now we have no choice...our worlds are one."

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

"This is a cover up! The Jedi are covering up vile crimes!"

Padme had never seen Ister Paddie so inflamed. The mostly serene Senator from Sermeria clearly made the effort to maintain a quiet dignity about him, never having broken his calm even during the worst days of Palpatine.  _Every sentient has their breaking point_ , Padme thought to herself, and to poor Ister, the knowledge that the guardians of the Republic would commit atrocities themselves, much less cover it up afterwards, was clearly his.

"I had heard rumors of a mad Jedi in the high jungles, but I had thought them Separatist lies." Padme had seen fit to call in Jebbu Smyrla, a junior Senator from Haruun Kal. "I told my Supreme Councilor as such. How will I explain this to her now?" He pointed a bony finger at the diminutive Grandmaster. "You! You've ruined my career."

Padme put her hand up, hoping to calm Smyrla down. "Senator, I'm sure your High Council will understand the difficult decision you were placed in. But the Republic needs answers. And Master Billaba needs to answer for her crimes."

They had finally finished refurnishing the office of the former Supreme Chancellor, and though there were still plenty more antiquities and decorations in transport from Naboo, Padme decided the time had come, on the eve of the past night's historic vote, to move into the office she planned to occupy indefinitely. They had redone the carpets completely, with no sign of the blood from the Jedi Masters who had fallen to Palpatine. She left the plaster on the window purposefully, tracing a small outline matching Yoda's whom she had summoned to appear personally to their meeting. Shifting her gaze directly from the very visible evidence of his failure to the Jedi Master himself, Padme could only hope that this constant silent reminder would serve to humble him before the authority of the Senate.  _Her_  authority.

"Need to gather all information, we did, before making our report. Misinformation about to situation, we wished to prevent. To hide the truth, never was our intent. Assure the honorable Senators I will, our plans to make a full briefing of the events on Haruun Kal once ready we were." Padme had never seen the old Jedi so exhausted. Flustered, even, as if he were at his wit's end. She did not pity him. He had lost the right to her empathy when he tried to take her Ani away from her.

"Master Yoda," Bail spoke up. The mounting bags underneath his eyes were evident to all. "You know I have always supported the Jedi. And I understand how utterly devastating Palpatine's attempt to destroy you has had on your Order. But you must see how this looks! By concealing this from the Senate you would beget the very slander you wish to avoid."

"A lapse in judgment, it was. Take full responsibility for this mistake, I will, myself."

"The Jedi seem very familiar with lapses in judgment these days," Orn Free Taa said smugly. "Is this coincidence, or pattern?"

"Senator Free Taa," Padme interrupted. While the Twi'lek Senator had his uses, she had to be careful not to be too associated with or dependent on him, especially in front of Bail or Mon. "Palpatine had  _all_  of us in the Senate fooled for many years, including you and me. I would have hoped that the Jedi would have a better sense for the Sith than us politicians, but it appears the Sith are more devious than any one of us realized."

"I was raised to revere the Jedi," Ister exclaimed, his voice still agitated. "On my planet, the Jedi are viewed almost as...Gods...your powers and your countless contributions to the Republic are worshiped by my people. But...there are two Jedi now we have clear evidence of who have gone mad, as you say. A Senator goes mad, and they send us back home and lock us up. A Jedi goes mad, and thousands of sentients die and thousands more suffer. Look at Count Dooku! He was one of you, and he ravaged the Galaxy for three years. If the Jedi can go...dark, as you say. If even a member of the Jedi Council can fall victim to this disease...what assurances do we in the Senate have that this won't happen again? That the next Dooku or...Palpatine, doesn't come from another member of your Council? How would you even know, if you didn't know about Dooku or Palpatine? Were that to happen, I can only hope that General Skywalker would be strong enough, as he was against Palpatine."

All the Senators in the room bristled at the suggestion that the slayer of the Sith could turn his powers against those in his former Order, and Padme could tell that even Master Yoda had to force himself to maintain his composure at those words. It was what he most feared, after all.

"Fall, some of us may, to the Dark Side, in times of extreme distress, exacerbated by the corruption of the Sith. Use our abilities, take advantage of the chaos and tragedy around us for political gain, like the Sith, we will never do, Senator Paddie." The lone Jedi in the room looked accusingly at the acting Empress as he said this.

Padme smiled warmly at Yoda, like she used to before Anakin had come back into her life. It was easy to play nice now, while others did the talking for her. It seemed that those who were newly apostates would match the newly converted in the strength of their convictions.

"I feel your pain, Master Yoda, I really do." She switched her attention to the Senator from Chandrila. "Mon, you've been quiet today. What are your thoughts on the Jedi question?"

She could tell the Senator had already been knocked off-balance by the prior day's events. Mon had given her short speech knowing that hers was a losing cause. Padme had the votes, and while one speech wasn't going to change any minds, it would have framed her legacy and image as the last righteous pariah standing athwart the oncoming tyranny. By declining the throne, Padme had made it seem like Mon was impugning ill intent to a woman who clearly bore none. Both women knew the game well enough to know Padme's advantage after that first round; others, like Bail and Garm, may very well suspect the same thing, which meant they would be watching carefully every word exchanged between the two in the coming days.

"It's horrific indeed to know that individual members of the Jedi may be corrupted as such. While I am confident these are isolated occurrences, the consequences of even one rogue Jedi can clearly be tragic on a massive scale. I trust, Master Yoda, that these isolated events were born out of the pressures of this awful war. Now that we have peace, we may look towards where Masters Krell and Billaba went wrong, and enact the necessary changes."

"Change is healthy in all organizations," Padme said, picking up seamlessly where Mon left off. "The Jedi Order is known however, for its traditional nature. What ideas have you, Master Yoda, on how the Jedi can adapt from the mistakes of the Clones Wars?"

"Consult with the Council, I still must. Scattered, they are. Need to evaluate the minds of the fallen Masters, we do. In military custody, Master Krell still is, as are Masters Hett, Vos and many others. Begin to evaluate what went wrong, we can't, until we consult the individual Masters."

"If what you are asking for is jurisdiction over your deserters, the answer is clearly no," Onaconda Farr asserted.

"But it is their tradition...," Bail started, his expression even more torn than before. What made Senator Organa special, Padme knew, was that he had the ability to genuinely see both sides, as long as they were presented within the realm of reason.

"Tradition almost ruined us," Rush Clovis interrupted. "As our acting Empress has said so elegantly, we cannot emerge from this crisis making the same mistakes we made before."

The discussion continued without her input for many more minutes, and while she paid attention to the arguments of her former colleagues, Padme spent most of the time observing the ancient Jedi master out of the corner of her eye. With the well timed leaks to the holonets of the carnage on Haruun Kal and Mon Calamari, the tide was clearly turning against the Jedi in the Senate. Yoda was fighting a losing battle, though he ought to be used to it by now, what with his failures with the Clone Wars and the Sith.

She finally decide to speak up when she sensed the discussion waning. "Senators, Master Yoda. Thank you for your input on this matter. What we are discussing three separate issues, though inexorably linked."

She looked to Master Yoda. "On the surface level, there is the question of jurisdiction. It is the immediate issue at hand, and it seems there is no easy resolution. The Order has made it clear that they will defy Republic bylaws by not releasing Master Billaba to our custody, and as the current guardian of the Republic, I will not allow further degradation of its integrity by giving up members of the Jedi who have committed crimes against the Republic. So we are at an impasse."

"A compromise can be reached," Bail offered. "A joint trial before selected members of the Senate and the Jedi could be agreeable to all."

"I'm sorry Bail," Padme said, bracing herself for this betrayal of her friend, "but the hierarchy is clear. As the Jedi committed crimes while serving as commanders in the GAR, the Jedi will answer to the GAR. By the powers invested to me by the Senate, I alone, as acting Empress, serve as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army, and I alone will pass the sentence."

Mouths dropped in open shock across the room, her boldness surprising even Mon Mothma.

"Surely you can't be serious?"

"That...this is...I can't believe..."

"My decision is final," Padme said, harshly interrupting Clovis. The only reason she still invited the Senator from Scipio to these meetings was because she expected his obsequious agreement on her decisions. If he was no good for that, then what reason to keep him around, especially considering the fact that his presence still grated on her husband, though he refused to admit it. "As for the other two tangential matters, we all agree that the Jedi have suffered much through the horrors of the war and Order 66, and we are all concerned as to the effect and strain it has had on the Order, and whether it can pose, unfortunately, as a threat to the safety of the Republic and its citizens."

She held up her hand to hold off any further debate until she was finished speaking. "To ease their burden and allow the Order to heal, I am putting into place a transition plan that will incrementally move command of the GAR over to Clone and Republic officers." She nodded at her Anakin who, as usual, had stood silently by her side through the duration of the meeting, and he moved to pass along a datastick to each Senator present. "The information provided by General Skywalker will offer further details, including a list of officer candidates who will transition into leadership."

As the politicians connected the datasticks and began to scan its contents, Padme continued. "Despite the lack of good faith shown by the Jedi over the matter of jurisdiction, I will allow the Jedi Order the benefit of respite so that they may recover from the Sith's assaults upon their existence. Except for exceptional situations mutually agreed upon by both the commander-in-chief and the Jedi Order, the Republic will no longer pass the burden of its violence onto the Jedi. However," she projected her voice even deeper to convey her authority, "the lack of cooperation on matters of galactic security must not pass without an answer."

She stood up, her small frame somehow towering over all the seated Senators and Yoda. "The lease regarding the usage of the Jedi residencies on joint Coruscant and Republic property is contingent on the symbiotic relationship between the Order and the government it serves, and rooted in the conduct of said service and goodwill. Because the Republic will no longer require the services of the Jedi, and because the Jedi have demonstrated their refusal to submit to the authority of the Republic, I am terminating the lease, effective immediately, but I will allow for an extension, a temporary evacuation period coinciding with the six-month timeline outlined in General Skywalker's military transition. So long as they continue to serve the Republic, the Jedi will have a place on Coruscant, but I would believe it wise, Master Yoda, to not procrastinate for your own sake."

"This is no longer a democracy," Mon Mothma spoke, her body shaking, after what seemed like an hour of stunned silence from all gathered. Her words had even caught the Jedi Grandmaster by surprise. "This is tyranny, pure and simple. Not even Palpatine would have attempted something like this."

"No. All he did was order their complete extermination. Let's not engage in hyperbole, Senator Mothma; we both know you are better than that. I am merely ordering a relocation and a reallocation of responsibility."

"A reallocation of power," Garm Bel Iblis said, "giving you complete authority."

"I am only using the power already granted me by the vote of the Senate," Padme said coldly.

"These are permanent changes," Bail said, eyes still in disbelief at the temerity of his friend, "to the structure of a Republic that has stood since the Ruusan Reformation."

"And that's the problem, isn't it? Success will inevitably fail with time...it is a law of politics, of organizations, of the galaxy. Palpatine woke us from our reverie, and now we must act."

"Master Yoda," Fang Zar beckoned towards the Jedi, "surely you must have something to say about this."

"Made up her mind, the Empress has," Yoda said, emphasizing a title that Padme herself had insisted none of her colleagues use thus far, "long before this meeting began. No recourse, I have, to change her mind...or her husband's."

 _There's nothing you can do because you're in the wrong and I'm in the right_ , Padme said to herself. Everything she had ordered thus far, while radical, was perfectly legal and within the bylaws instituted by the late Supreme Chancellor in his accumulation of power, and amplified by the Senate vote Anakin had pleaded for in the immediate aftermath of Palpatine's death. Everyone in the room knew it.

"At least let the Senate vote upon something this drastic and permanent," Bail pleaded.

"I have the votes, Senator Organa." She looked over to Paddie, Farr, Free Taa, as well as Tills, Dowmeia, and Smyrla, Senators from worlds who had suffered under the Jedi she had all but incorporated officially into the Loyalist Committee, "whether in this room, or in the chambers at large. The Senate already has its hands full with the peacemaking process, and putting such a divisive issue to debate will push more urgent issues aside, as the vocal minority would lengthen significantly what would still be an inevitable vote count." And of course, she didn't say, Padme needed to set the precedent, that it was the Empress, and not the Senate, who held jurisdiction over such matters.

"Master Yoda," Bail said impulsively, his face ashen as he knew well enough Padme was not going to change her mind. "The Jedi are always welcome on Alderaan. We have opulence we know not what to do with."

"Appreciated, your generosity is." Yoda turned to the acting Empress. "A word, I may have with the Empress, once the meeting is over?"

"Unfortunately, Master Yoda, I have more pressing business to attend to."

Nevertheless, later that day she found the Grandmaster waiting outside her office when she and Anakin were leaving for a meeting with the medical relief representatives.

"Continue, you will, Palpatine's plans? Sacrifice, you will, the galaxy for personal reasons?" The old Jedi's eyes still blazed with defiance, but this body language, his hunch and reliance on his gimer stick appearing more severe after the day's debate, indicated he understood the extent of his defeat.

"If you are referring to our meeting the two mornings ago, you may consider it a favor I have not brought up what discerning eyes would perceive as a near-coup at the authority of the Senate." She knew she had the upper hand here, that Yoda realized that their attempt to arrest Anakin, while perfectly justified to any Jedi, was a severe political miscalculation in the eyes of most Senators who, under the influence of a Sith Master for thirteen years, were already beyond disillusioned in the Order well before she had leaked the footage of the rogue Jedi. "But no, this is not personal. The underlying legal issue at hand, again, is jurisdiction, and I certainly took account of it when making my decision regarding jurisdiction. Good day, Master Jedi."

Without another word she turned and walked away, trailed closely by her husband.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The keyword of this chapter, apparently, is 'jurisdiction'.
> 
> I had to make up a new Senator for Haruun Kal since I can't seem to find one in canon, and clearly, I'm using the Legends fate of Depa Billaba.
> 
> In Heirs I portrayed Anakin as someone whose political senses were almost as keen as Padme's. That's obviously not something that happens overnight, and I want to show here how Padme is starting to tutor Anakin in her world, as well as his willingness to learn.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan sees an old friend. Anakin and the Empress both encounter resistance to their plans.

Normally Obi-Wan didn't mind being in stasis. It gave him an opportunity to meditate, after all, having no other choice between that and just resting. The latter, however, had been more palatable as the toll from the war wore steadily down upon his carefully maintained serenity, but now, he would have rather not suffered the injury that landed him currently in the medbay. He cursed, in his mind, the rogue droid squadron that he did not sense in his hurry to return to Coruscant, where there was too much going on for him to be stuck floating in bacta.

_"Patience, Obi-Wan, patience. The Galaxy may yet survive the day, even without the services of its great Negotiator."  
_

"Oh, I'm hallucinating now," Obi-Wan muttered through the void. "This is just great."

_"Haven't I always taught you, a Jedi keeps his mind open to all possibilities?"_

"You're serious about this, aren't you."

He found himself standing alone in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, his favorite in the Temple. But in the middle of the waterfalls, he found that he was alone in this normally bustling room. Obi-Wan looked around, expecting to see his old master, but there was nothing but the constant sound of water rushing.

"You're dead."

_"Death, yet the Force."_

"Yes, yes, that's exactly what my old Master would do...recite the code. The ancient one, at that." And while he still did not want to believe it, the presence of Qui-Gon seemed...pungently real. Obi-Wan thought he knew the difference between what was real and imagined, even in a vision, which this clearly was at this point.

He found himself on a park bench. The setting seemed vaguely familiar to him. He looked up, at the source of the light, which seemed filtered through the clear barrier above...Mandalore! He looked down at his hands...they were smooth, unbroken, uncracked, like they had been when he first met her. And then he saw her, sauntering along the pathway towards a small pond, just as he remembered. He had sat in this very seat so many years ago, trying his best to be aware of his surroundings, yet nondescript, for the sake of his mission to protect the Duchess. She looked so much younger than he remembered, but that was because he was much older now, and she still a child in this memory. Yet her same light shown through, her golden presence, her pureness, her goodness...they felt different. His senses were the same, yet aged, ancient, those feelings in the Force worn by time. Because the time was wrong, this was the past, and while this vision could replay the past, it could never replicate it, bring him back to that exact moment in time and space. It wasn't real.

_"Feel the difference?"_

He smelt the sulfur. They were in the ironworks. It was a dark day, a dark mission, a dark time for his Master. Telos IV. Where Xanatos, Qui-Gon's first apprentice, had met his end in the darkness. A blue, transparent silhouette stood, looking wearily down at an acrid pool of acid. He could only see his back, but Obi-Wan could feel his sadness, his regret, same as when they had been there the first time. It felt real, even as everything else around them, the dirt, the hazy crimson sky, all had the same, musty feel of the past, an imitation.

"Master. How is this possible?"

 _"The Force. What else?"_  Yet the ghost (?) before him did not turn around, and Obi-Wan found he could move no further.

"But..."

 _"This is not the time to explain,"_  Qui-Gon intoned, then his voice softened.  _"Obi-Wan, you have far surpassed your old Master in your skills and in your wisdom. Yet there is still much to learn. For you. For Master Yoda. For Anakin..."_

"Anakin...," Obi-Wan was afraid to say more. He had hidden from Mace down on Carida about how truly worried he was about his old Padawan. His embrace of the Dark Side was unmistakable, felt across the Galaxy, he was sure, by anyone who could touch the Force. He could feel nothing more through their bond, severed, then the remnants left in neglect years ago, and he could tell nothing from the Holonet footage besides a stoic, stone-faced young man always standing beside or behind the Empress (the new Palpatine?) he had put into place. Deep down, Obi-Wan allowed himself to hope that the worst had not come to pass, but he was beginning to allow acceptance take the place of fear for what he must do, for the sake of his duty. For the sake of the Jedi, and the Galaxy.

_"Yes. Young Skywalker has learned much since his departure from the Order. Yet there is much the Jedi have to learn from him. Even yourself."_

"What are you saying?" Was this heresy? Was it possible, Obi-Wan wondered, for someone to turn their backs to everything they had believed in, after death? "Are you saying we should all dabble in the Dark Side? Replace the Sith Anakin killed by our own numbers?"

_"You're better than such absolutes, Obi-Wan. Or so I had hoped."_

"It's not absolutes...it's the Code."

 _"And what would the Code say about my existence here?"_  When Obi-Wan didn't answer, Qui-Gon continued.  _"All things are possible through the Force, if only we open our minds to those possibilities."_

His old master turned around, and Obi-Wan was surprised at how much comfort he found in seeing Qui-Gon's blue eyes, firm yet gentle, again.

_"Anakin needs you. You need him, but you'll need more than him to find your place in the new world."_

"New world?"

_"The Force whispers change, Padawan."_

Then, the universe crumpled around him, all the sithly colors swirling about him until he found himself submerged...in a bacta tank, on a starship en route to Coruscant.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It had been awhile since Anakin had found himself in the seedy underbelly of the capitol world. Rarely had he been commanded to conduct missions on Coruscant in his apprenticeship, and the war had flung him to all the corners of the Galaxy. He had indeed seen all the stars, though not in the way his childhood self would have imagined. He was so tired of the fighting, the chaos, the pain he felt even as he cut down those who deserved to die. But Padme would fix it, he would help her, and then finally, he could have peace.

Several clone units along with the Coruscanti Guard had been able to quell some of the insurrections on the lower levels now, but new ones kept flaring up in other sectors, just enough to keep his peacekeeping efforts off balance, and with so many of his squadrons occupied in other systems, there were little new resources he could bring into the fold for now. The instigators they captured, whether leaders or common rioters, hadn't been able to provide much sense of why they were rioting. Some were doing so because they heard the Clones were coming for them, that they had overthrown the Republic and were looking to exterminate all trueborns. Others claimed that the new acting Empress, a creature from up high, wanted to eliminate the lower levels entirely and resettle them with offworld refugees. The rationale varied into the obscure, with some claiming that they were fighting off the malevolent spirit of the former Chancellor, who still possessed the bodies of every other sentient on the planet.

It was useless reacting, and Anakin needed to get to the source of the disorder. He knew that Mas Amedda had hired one bounty hunter named Cad Bane to spread disorder upon the death of the Chancellor. Based on what he could gather from the information ripped out of his mind, Palpatine had instructed the former Vice-Chair to destroy the Republic in the event of his death, but the opportunistic politician had been hoping to use the ensuing chaos to consolidate his own power. Clearly though, the riots were still spreading even with the Chagrian Senator wholly incapacitated, which meant Amedda would have had less control over the events than he himself realized. Either this Bane and his associates were acting autonomously, or they had other paymasters guiding their actions. Or both.

He stalked the old foundry, moving as silently as the night, his presence carefully shielded. He was nothing, he was a ghost, whose sense expanded around him, searching for a dark presence he had encountered before. None of the riot leaders they had captured had actually dealt with Bane, but one had mentioned seeing the haunting green eyes of a deathly pale woman looming in the back of one of his meetings with his spice dealer, who claimed that the new acting Empress was conspiring to lace his shipments with some deadly offworld poison. Anakin was almost sure this was Aurra Sing, another bounty hunter and former Jedi he had encountered in the war, lastly on Ryloth. He had put out a bulletin for her amongst the Guard, but with a singular and familiar Force presence to work with, he could better tell which sightings were real and which sightings were false. And now that the dark presence of the late Sidious was extinguished from the planet, it was not terribly hard to sense another.

"...the Rodian district is vulnerable," he heard a female voice echo through the vast ceilings of the abandoned factory. "We're slowly diverting the Clones to the western districts. An insurrection there will spread, and with the narrower, older avenues, be time consuming to put down."

"Very well," a nasally voice responded. "We'll move to the mid-levels from Old Town to keep the Republic forces distracted."

Anakin stepped out from behind a crate when the transmission ended. Her back was to him, and she didn't sense him until he was standing right behind her.

"You are unwise to step foot on this planet."

She jumped and moved quickly to react, but Anakin quickly Force pushed her to the ground. She saw who she was dealing with and crawled backwards, scared like she had never been before in her life. She would resist if it were just another Jedi, but there was no point to fighting him, not after the footage from the Senate she had seen on the holonets.

"Credits are credits," she muttered. "We can make a deal, Skywalker. I can help you too."

"You will reveal to me every detail of this little conspiracy and lead me to Cad Bane."

His voice was cold and hollow, but he made no move towards his lightsaber. She wondered if she had an opening, if he could somehow underestimate her, and she could take advantage of that.

"No one in the Galaxy would trust me after such a betrayal. But there are other ways..."

"There is no other choice," Anakin thundered, ignoring her words. She backed up further, moving her hand behind her back, reaching for her belt to send a distress signal, but suddenly she found herself immobilized completely, as if the weight of a thousand planets were sitting upon her.

"You will tell me everything, then you will be punished for hurting my wife."

Force, she remembered. The assassination attempt on Senator Amidala on Alderaan in the early days of the Clone Wars. If only she had known of her connection to Skywalker, if only she had known what they would both become. That would be her last conscious thought before the darkness invaded her mind, and she felt her entire soul being forcibly ripped away from her. She tried to fight back, but there was no stopping the power, what seemed to be the will of the Force itself. What was this torture, except the truest manifestation of the Dark Side, well beyond the bits and pieces she had access to? Just when the invasion of her mind had ceased, and she felt like she could breathe again, she couldn't.

Anakin reached down and picked up the dead woman's comlink. He was more enlightened than before now. There were more Senators involved as well, just as he suspected. He had more faces, more names, more secure codes, more ways of contact. Quickly, he thought of his children, he thought back to Naboo, the pace and tranquility of the Living Force there, and he felt his blood pressure fall. It was not wise to use the Dark Side so freely, but this was so much easier than the Jedi way, which would have involved endless interrogations of an uncooperative prisoner, ultimately wasting time and getting nowhere. Still, he could not hide the shame of what Obi-Wan would have thought if he witnessed what had just happened. Or Qui-Gon who, now that he thought about it, probably was watching.

"This is for the better," he protested out loud, maybe to himself, maybe to a ghost. "There are more people we can help now, and quicker."

"And more power for the Empress," he added later as he left the building. "She is all that matters."

 

 

* * *

 

 

Force, she was tired, but she had to endure. She knew her decision to jettison the Jedi would have severe repercussions. In a perfect world, she would have been able to wait until the time was ripe, but Anakin needed help, and she did care to change the fact that her friend Ahsoka was languishing in confinement. But the Senate, despite everything...Palpatine's manipulations, footage of rogue Jedi, still seemed to bear some attachment to the Order. Even if they did not approve of the Jedi wholly, this was too much of a change for them, and too fast. Padme was sure she still maintained a majority, but the many who opposed her move were certainly making her life difficult. Mon Mothma, in particular, who was now hours into a methodical, tedious presentation on the merits of the Jedi, going over what seemed to be every mission and every world they had assisted over the last thousand years. Once again, Padme questioned why she was doing this. Mon was an astute politician, and she should know well enough that such a dry presentation would not win her much support. But then, she knew the vote count was helplessly skewed against her as well, so this was clearly just another effort to bolster her legacy. She was not speaking to the Senators present, but to posterity.

"The Chair recognizes the Senator from Fondor," Padme said after Mon was blissfully finished with her speech. Hopefully this would be the last one of the night. The Senate was keeping her from doing her real duties to the Republic...no, to her future Empire, she reminded herself, and it would be yet another late one. She hoped Anakin could join her, if his investigation down on the lower levels proved successful. It felt terribly lonely already, the burden of power, of her position, and having her husband next to her as she worked made it so much better.

A pod emerged from the upper levels of the chambers. The speaker, Stamen More, was a human male, bald, like all Fondorians.

"Where is Amedda?"

This was odd. He had a tone of arrogance, too much for someone Padme had barely heard of. She studied the man more from a distance; he was older, in the first years of middle age, a bit rotund with an obvious belly, but very tall, taller than Anakin, even, and the man's size seemed to amplify his stature.

"He is under the custody of the GAR," Padme replied evenly, "under investigation for his complicity in Chancellor Palpatine's crimes."

"My reputation is beyond reproach, as you all very well know. I opposed Palpatine from beginning to end, so you will not find me sympathizing with his cohorts. So I ask again, where's Mas Amedda?"

Beyond reproach? No one had ever heard of this obscure backbencher. She studied his voting records. He had indeed voted against the late Chancellor on every occasion, but where had he been to speak up against his tyranny, to risk his career and even his life going against the Sith Lord when she and Bail and Mon had bore that burden?

"I have given you your answer already," Padme said. "Please continue with whatever you mean to say."

"Appreciate it, your highness," he said, addressing her with visceral contempt. "You all sit comfortably here in this massive building, including our Empress. Well, I've suffered. My planet's suffered. My family's suffered. But while you all sat here talking and debating and elevating a tyrant to power, the Jedi came, and they saved my planet from destruction."

Padme sifted through her files. Indeed, Masters Windu and Fisto had led a team to the planet less than a year before the First Battle of Geonosis.

"Look at you, your highness, standing there high and mighty, like you want to be the next Palpatine. You come from his planet, don't you? You put him in power, didn't you? What right do you have now, pretending to be innocent? Now condemning him, when you clearly follow the same line of tyranny?"

Searching her memory, Padme could find nothing that would explain this man's sudden hostility to her. They had never talked before, and she had never once sponsored any legislation that affected his planet. Had one of her bills not provided him enough funding?

"Has her highness ever gone hungry? I have, and the Jedi fed me. Has her highness ever gone without shelter, not lived in a grand palace or 500 Republica? I have, and the Jedi put a roof over my head. Has her highness ever lost a loved one, a father, to violence and war? I have, but the Jedi came and saved the rest of my family, and brought peace so that no more would die. Yet her highness, this rich little girl from a rich planet who's never suffered a day in her life, wishes to now eliminate from the Republic those who would protect the poor, the weak, the helpless? Over my dead kriffin body she will!"

Gasps echoed through the chamber at the Senator's language and lack of decorum. While the man was a complete unknown, his language, his brusque, angry voice, had certainly gotten the attention of everyone in the chamber, and guaranteed the entire Galaxy's once this reached the holonets.

"What does her highness want anyway? What the hell are her motives? She finds the most powerful Jedi in the Order, seduces him, convinces him to betray his kind, beds him, breeds him, and manipulates him until he's no more than a servant, a slave to her, manipulates her precious little toy to kill for her, all for the sake of her power? She spoke out against the Clone Army, yet her little slave commanded them, and now she does too! She claims she wants to end the war, to help all worlds, yet she shows more sympathy and makes more effort towards the Separatist worlds than those who stay loyal to the Republic! Could it be possible that she, like Palpatine, sought only to inflame and worsen the war for her own vile reasons?"

As Padme struggled to maintain her dignity from the man's scattered and rapidly escalating attacks, she took stock of the faces she could see. Bail seemed uncomfortable, though he likely agreed with Stamen's on the subject of the Jedi. Mon's expression was neutral, and Fang Zar seemed captivated, along with hundreds and hundreds of Senators.

"We need to ask ourselves, what else does her highness want, before we let her get away with more! Who else could protect us from Jedi affected by the war, besides the Jedi? Does she hold a grudge against them because of her husband, because they kicked his sorry ass out? Would she condemn the Galaxy to lawlessness and violence because of a personal matter, because someone dared to tell her highness who she could or couldn't marry? Where's Mas Amedda anyway? Or Sly Moore? Sate Pestage? Force knows I am beyond reproach in my stance towards Palpatine, but what's happened to due process or the laws of the Republic? What's stopping her highness from detaining any other Senator here on her own gilded whims, when little miss princess has another temper tantrum? Or myself, for the matter, now that I've spoken the truth about her highness! If I disappear tomorrow, you know where I went, and you know which little princess to ask about it!"

Now the murmurs rose above the din. It was one thing to speak of the Jedi, or principles like democracy. Now, however, this obscure Senator was reminding his colleagues of their own self-interest, of the fact that in their rush to act after Palpatine, they had freely given away their own power. To woman, a girl no less.

"Let's take care of her before it's too late, before her crimes become irreversible and before she has her way with us and makes the entire Senate her plaything like she did her poor, ball-less husband. I move for a motion of no-confidence in her highness! Let's remove this would be dictator from power, and I say this to all Senators, the Galaxy is watching. Your planets, your systems, your people are watching, to see whether you wish to remain slaves to our little princess, or whether you will finally grow a pair and speak for yourselves. You can't hide on Coruscant forever! Vote the wrong way, Senators, and your own constituents will make you face the consequences when you return home! When they drag you home, kicking and screaming!"

The chamber erupted in angry shouting and debate. Amidst it, Mon Mothma's pod came forward. "While I cannot agree with the crude tone and substance of Senator More's words, I must second the motion. Senator Amidala has demonstrated that she would abuse the power bestowed upon her by the Senate. The Senate must do its duty, now more than ever, to secure the Republic from those who would threaten it, even from within."

As the calls for a vote strengthened in decibels, Padme raised her pod to speak in her defense. There was little she could do. To speak passionately on her own behalf would validate those who suspected her motives. And to speak extensively would be acknowledging Stamen, elevating a nobody to her level.

"The vote will proceed. I wish to only rebuff the Senator from Fondor's more personal attacks against me, and remind the Senator that General Skywalker and I are no strangers to suffering. I wish you be more sensitive to the fact that Anakin lived almost a decade as an  _actual_  slave and, like the Jedi, both of us have placed our own lives in danger many times in the service of our planet and our Republic."

Her spirits faded as she scanned the incoming votes. She would prevail, but the margin was too close for comfort, with hundreds of votes lost compared to the last, barely maintaining the majority. The cause could not be solely attributed to one man's diatribe, but More's speech, combined with the shock of her move against the Jedi, clearly caused many to defect. The message sent to her was clear: while she still held her position, she could no longer act with impunity. The Senate had reasserted its power over her title and her authority, and short of an outright coup or physical takeover she could order with Anakin and her Clones, she would have to tread carefully in her pathway to power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stamen More is an OC I needed to fill the purposes of the story and challenge Padme in a way that Mon Mothma cannot. Fondor is canon, as is the Jedi intervention there before the Clone Wars, but in this universe Anakin and Obi-Wan were never sent there, so More would not have any personal ties with them.


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a setback, Padme moves her next pieces into play on her galactic dejarik board.

"While I agree that Dien Lago is qualified, I do not believe he would be the right man to appoint in this day and time."

The Lago family was a longstanding political dynasty of Naboo, and Padme had had a brief romance with the Governor's cousin Ian before she had been elected Queen.

"I beg your pardon, your highness," Queen Apailana asked, the child confused. At thirteen, she was younger than even Amidala, and naive enough apparently to believe that the new acting Empress of the Galaxy would assent to her choice to succeed her in the Senate without question. Certainly that was tradition, but no longer. Even Palpatine had not objected to Padme's appointees when he was Chancellor, nor Queen Jamillia's decision to appoint her. Thorn in his side she had been, Padme figured that at the time Palpatine had thought it a worthy calculation that her presence on Coruscant would help pry Anakin away from the Jedi. It certainly did, though not in the way the Sith had planned.

"What I'm about to tell you, your highness, is highly classified, you must understand," Padme said, address the young Queen in the same way Apailana addressed her. At least the child, nodding her agreement, had the respect not to call her by her former title, or use her currently one derisively. "We have uncovered much from Chancellor Palpatine's files. Apparently the man was a xenophobe, and part of his purpose for the Separatist movement was to place non-human species outside the Republic, so that he could place the blame for the tragedies of the Clone Wars onto them. The future he envisioned for the Galaxy was entirely human-centric, with non-humans disenfranchised or worse, placed into slavery were they to speak against him."

"That sounds...horrible."

All this was true, but it was not the sole reason for Padme's objection. She didn't care about Dien's connection with Ian, but worried more so about the fact that he came from the same idealist school of thought as Apailana, Jamillia...and well, Amidala herself. She could not risk more trouble in the Senate, especially not after the last night's vote, and though Lago would be only one Senator, it would not look well for the representative from her own home planet to be speaking against her. Briefly, she noted the position she had put Palpatine in, and its similarities. She did not wish to dwell on it further.

"We must send the message to the Galaxy that the voices of all species, all sentients, will be heard, and for a nonhuman Senator from my own home planet to be appointed would convey to remaining Separatist worlds the sincerity of our efforts at reconciliation."

"Who would you recommend then?" Ah, it took forever for her to say the right words. Not that long, actually, but Padme did not have much time to spare.

"Jar-Jar Binks."

"Jar-Jar," Apailana asked, clearly not expecting that answer. While the Gungan had served for years now as Naboo's junior Representative in the Senate, his appointment was mainly symbolic for his role in the Trade Federation crisis, and few in the royal court took him seriously.

"Representative Binks has served Naboo ably for many years," Padme said, hoping the teenager would not bring up his role in granting the Supreme Chancellor his emergency powers, though that move had been celebrated by many as necessary at the moment. "His record of service in the Clone Wars has been outstanding as well, and he has all the connections and relationships in the Senate that will prove crucial for the interests of the Chommell Sector in this very chaotic time. Naboo's human population will already have representation in the capitol world in my person, and I believe it's time we gave the Gungans a greater voice in light of recent events."

"Very well," Apailana replied stoically. Her initial surprise had disappeared, and she now bore the traditional impassive expression of a Naboo Monarch again. "I will consider your suggestion. Naboo must do our part to refute the crimes of our former chancellor."

"Please do. I know it's only one Senator, but many on both sides of the war are watching carefully this appointment."

Left unsaid was the assumption that this appointment would only be temporary, and that Amidala would return to her original position once she ceded her emergency powers. Padme was fairly confident that the Queen would agree. While Apailana clearly had strong opinions of her own, it would be tough for someone that young to refuse an Empress, however temporary, and especially one who, if the rumors were correct, she personally idolized. Still, just the small chance she would refuse and stick to her original decision was too much for Padme. The actions of Naboo were critical to her success and she decided that, while she would let the girl serve out the rest of her term, she needed to ensure that the next election was wholly within her control.

She heard a stirring from her bed, signifying her husband was finally waking up. He had spent a late night in the lower levels, and Padme was sure he had laid awake for hours afterwards, stewing over the past night's Senate session once he saw the footage.

"I had a weird dream last night."

"Oh?" She hoped it wasn't one of his  _bad_  nightmares. She would have noticed, whether in his troubled sleeping through the night, or his haunted eyes this morning. And Palpatine  _was_  dead, after all.

"It was Master Qui-Gon. He...he wasn't a Jedi, but he was some kind of agent. And he was married too, and his daughter was... _taken_  by these pirates, and he went around and killed them all to get her back."

"Hmmm. Funny you should say that...I had a dream about him too. Except he...he owned some kind of factory in this place where genocide was being committed, only he would submit lists of people he would hire to save them from being killed, and then help sneak them away."

"Maybe it's all a sign. Obi-Wan's back. I can feel his presence on the planet." he said. His hair was clearly ruffled, so he hadn't slept well despite the lack of any nightmares.

"You will meet him?" Padme hoped that Obi-Wan would understand her husband better than Yoda and the rest of the Council had, especially now that enough time had passed for tempers to cool. Anakin wasn't the only one who valued the man's friendship, and she also hoped for Anakin's sake that he would not lose another friend; Shiraya knew she had lost enough already.

"We will go see Ahsoka together. She is his Padawan, and he should be there."

"Let me know once you know how she's doing."

"I will." He furrowed his eyebrows, more unpleasant thoughts dawning into his head. "I wish you'd let me just strangle that Stamen guy."

"Patience, Anakin. He may have his uses."

"How so? I only see a threat."

"The Jedi believe in staying in the Light, or straying Dark and never returning. Politics is more like an ocean, Ani. It moves in waves, ebbing and flowing. Valorum rose, then he fell. Palpatine rose, then he fell. My star was rising..."

"You can't fall," Anakin protested, sudden panic evident on his face. His protectiveness of her had always been endearing, but this was her fight now, and she needed him to learn its ways. "I get what you're saying. It's like in war, when we let the enemy shoot their load before we counterattack."

"It's the same idea, but where you only have a few flanks in war, in politics you have thousands, and you don't even know where they could be, or who your enemies are. If war is a fog, then politics is like a wilderness of mirrors. Everything is displayed in front of you in plain sight, but you cannot trust anything you see or hear. " As if on cue, the angry visage of the Fondorian Senator appeared on the holoscreen, pontificating in front of dozens of eager reporters. "They've attacked me, and I've already fallen, Ani, if only slightly. The key is how we manage the landing. Stamen is today's shiny new object. Soon, they will tire of him as well. Let him have his day in the sun. The way he conducts himself contrasts greatly with my own conduct, and will paint a better picture for the Galaxy which side to pick. I would rather have him be the face of opposition than Bail, or even Mon."

Already, she was thinking of half a dozen ways she could manipulate the situation, and the many former colleagues she needed to work to her advantage. It scared herself how absolutely...Palpatinian the way her mind worked. Had she always been like this, or was this something new, born into existence when the Jedi threatened Anakin?

"I still don't like this," Anakin said, rising and trying to pick out a robe from his closet. "I think you underestimate him. He was almost able to cripple you, in a way that Mon did not come close to. What happens next time, if he's successful?"

"He won't be," Padme uttered, surprised at the venom in her own voice. Just because she saw opportunities around the man didn't mean she could ignore the growing distaste she already felt for this new enemy. "He was an unknown, and caught me by surprise. That will not happen again. Someone like Stamen would almost certainly have deep-seeded issues in his past, and demons he prefers to keep hidden."

A wisp of a smile grew on Anakin's face. "Now we're talking."

Now they were certainly talking, Padme thought. About blackmail. Extortion. Again, Palpatinian tactics. And how they would use this to her benefit.

No, she realized, this was not something new. Her brain was too active, too creative, too honed to be completely ignorant of the possibilities. Thoughts, ideas, ways that she could have manipulated her fellow Senators, taken advantage of their failings, their tragedies, their weaknesses had surfaced often in her career as Senator Amidala, but she had acted quickly to bury such notions out of existence. But that didn't mean that they did not exist, even for the briefest of moments. For once, she wondered how far Palpatine would have gotten had she been willing to combat him on his own terms, play him at his own game. The late Sith Lord still held plenty of cards in his favor of course, his powers in the Force being one, as well as the added advantage of a decade plus head start to his tenure in the Senate. Still, she would have made it interesting and, more importantly, could she have helped even save one more world that Palpatine ruined? She would regret the example she and her predecessor from Naboo were setting for the future if it weren't for that fact, now grudgingly acknowledged, that this has always been the way of politics, that Amidala and her ideas of purity and fair play had always been the exception.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

She felt like she could breathe again, if just a little. While it seemed the entire Jedi Order along with the Republic had turned their backs on her and believed her a monster, there were at least a few who still had faith in her. These few just happened to be the most powerful individuals in the galaxy right now, which was the only reason she was free at the moment. Ahsoka was thankful for that, but it was nothing approaching closure for her. The rest of the galaxy still distrusted her, maligned her in their minds, and believed her to be a free woman unjustly, only because of her connections.

How quickly had so much changed since she found that Sith holocron alongside her Master on Felucia. She protested when Obi-Wan instructed her to return the holocron to the Temple; she had had a bad feeling about returning to Coruscant in the middle of the campaign, and in truth, she still missed her old Master Anakin, who she was sure she could have convinced to stay where the action was. But for someone they called the  _Negotiator_ , there seemed to be no negotiating him out of a decision once his mind was made up. She had returned to the Temple just in time for the terrible bombing, and her good intentions to get to the bottom of the mystery alongside her friend Barriss had only gotten her into this mess.

Her Jedi guards told her little of what was going on in the Galaxy at large, and she could only depend on what she sensed. She sensed the lifting of the dark cloud, even as she felt at the same time a brief yet so sharp spike of darkness from the remnants of the bond she had with her old master. Yet, it was clearly not a Sith Lord that freed her from her cell today. Anakin was his usual kind, caring self, and Obi-Wan was not attacking him. He would be if Anakin had turned into a Sith, though she sensed that her current Master had been on edge, very wary of his first Padawan.

As she read page after page on her datapad of everything that had happened since her trial, Ahsoka realized that those feelings she latched onto in her cell did little to prepare her for all these new shocking revelations. The war was over! Anakin had won it! Palpatine was a Sith Lord! Her friend Padme, the one who spoke for her at the trial, was voted an acting Empress! She reversed Order 66 and saved the Jedi! She had banished the Jedi from Coruscant! On the last matter, Ahsoka's feelings were clouded. If she was being honest with herself, she resented the Jedi Council for giving up on her so easily, being so quick to pass judgment. Serves them right, now getting the same treatment. She had remembered the bombardment, on the night of the darkness, when the Clones, the same clones she fought beside and loved and trusted, had attacked the Temple. It had ended just as abruptly, and she realized that she, along with the rest of the Jedi, all owed Padme their lives.

So she would live, and live freely, but what would she do with her life now? Technically she was still expelled from the Order, though she doubted she would want anything to do with them if Anakin were able to clear her name as he promised. Not the Order they were now, and not what the Order would become once they moved to Alderaan. That just seemed boring, honestly. She would miss Obi-Wan, but he was too orthodox to complete her training outside of the Order. Maybe Anakin could. She would like that, but he clearly had more important things to worry about right now.

She heard a knock and ran to the doorway of her temporary quarters in 500 Republica. Sensing a warm, familiar presence, she was still surprised to see the acting Empress standing before her alone.

"Force! Padme...I mean, Senator...I mean...your...," she exclaimed, not sure how to address her old friend.

"Padme's fine." They hugged each other, both of them on the verge of tears.

"I don't know what to say," Ahsoka gasped after she pulled away, looking uncertainly at the ground. "You and Anakin believed in me when no one else did. It means so much."

"Obi-Wan believes in you too," Padme offered softly.

"Really? He didn't have a lot to say to me today. You would think he'd be more...worried about his Padawan. Former Padawan, I guess, since they kicked me out."

"Anakin believes so." She reached softly for the young girl's shoulder. She would give the Jedi the benefit of the doubt, for Ahsoka's sake. The Empress was more than willing to manipulate the politicians, since they had long made their beds, but the young Togrutan was her friend, and an innocent. "Ahsoka, Anakin was Obi-Wan's student before you were. He's not someone who will always tell you what he's thinking, especially when there's any uncertainly involved. Obi-Wan might be certain, but until the evidence is, I don't think your Master could bring himself to commit to something...that would bring you false hope.

"Oh." Padme's words helped, and they didn't. So Obi-Wan trusted her, but wasn't willing to stick her neck out for her, like Anakin and Padme did?

"He's not perfect," Padme continued, sensing the girl's confusion. "You may think he is, because he's your Master, but like all of us, like myself, or Anakin, Obi-Wan has his weaknesses as well as his strengths."

"I understand," Ahsoka said, walking away from her friend. Not that she fully understood, but more that she no longer wanted to talk about it. "It's just...so much right now."

"So much of what we thought we knew, we know no longer." Sensing her friend's thoughts, Padme moved to change the subject. "Just know that we are here for you, Ahsoka. Me, Ani, Obi-Wan. Anything you need, let us know."

"Just you being here is enough. I'm sure you have more important places to be."

"It's no matter. We're in between sessions right now, and I think after the last few days, everyone in the Senate needs some time to take a breath and recharge."

"Why," then she stopped before she had a chance to finish her question. Ahsoka couldn't help be curious as to why her good friend would send the Jedi into exile, but that line of questioning would bring the subject back to precisely the one she wanted to avoid. Instead, she turned around to look at her surroundings. "I...I just don't think I can sit around her for much longer, doing nothing. That's all I've been doing for the last months."

Their eyes met, Ahsoka afraid to ask, Padme afraid of the lines crossed once she did. "Anakin and I certainly have our hands full," Padme finally allowed herself to say. "The GAR is still stretched thin firefighting, quelling small riots and uprisings, even on Coruscant. We know that Palpatine instructed his agents in the Senate to ferment chaos in the event of his death. Even now, I don't know who we can trust."

"Do you think I can help?" For the first time since the tribunal passed their sentence, Ahsoka felt hope in her heart. Before Padme visited, she was wondering what she would do, where she would go, now that she was free and yet left completely astray. She thought about flying back to her homeworld of Shili, maybe even further, to the Outer Rim, to try and put everything behind her, and to go to a place where no one knew of her infamy. But the idea that she could help her friends, that her name wasn't too sullied from doing so, seemed to hold greater appeal right now.

Padme smiled. She's coming willingly, she thought. Yet wasn't it still manipulation if Ahsoka didn't know her true ends, her true intentions for the Republic? "Ani said you have a gift for digging things up. We have been busy uncovering the true extent of the lies and deception the Sith perpetrated to start this war. There's no lack of evidence, but the problem is it's overwhelming, the scale beyond the scope our imagination."

Ahsoka fumed. "I may not be a Jedi, but if there's anything I can do to expose the evil of the Sith, then count me in." It boggled her mind how the Supreme Chancellor could have fooled everyone, and it broke her heart thinking about how much of a personal betrayal that must have been for Anakin. It would certainly explain how her former master could have mustered such intense...darkness...in slaying the Sith.

"I'm sure Anakin will be happy to hear that. He'll be delighted to work with you again."

That felt right, Ahsoka thought. The Jedi had turned their backs on Anakin as well, yet no one considered him a failure now. He had found his path after the Order, and who else could show her how to do the same?

 

 

* * *

 

 

"Bail!" Padme welcomed her friend with as much affection as she could muster. Genuine affection, since she still saw him as a friend even as she understood he was posed to be her biggest threat.

"Senator Amidala," the Alderaanian replied tonelessly. It was what Anakin referred to as her 'political voice', and she recognized how he had spoken to Palpatine in the same tone during the latter years of the war. "Have you had a chance to reconsider your decision regarding the Jedi?"

Blunt and to the point. She appreciated that, both that it let her know exactly where she stood, and because he clearly did not fear the repercussions of speaking against her as he did Palpatine. "I'm afraid there is no going back, Bail, and I believe this sets forth a course of action that will be beneficial to everyone. Including Alderaan, as I imagine the presence of the order will bring with it a significant economic boon."

"Alderaan benefits while the Republic loses." Bail Organa leaned closer towards her desk, his discomfort in the situation evident. "Padme, what you seem to be suggesting as the alternative would be a military state."

"There has always been a military presence in Republic space. Would you rather the violence be monopolized by entities we have the least control over? The Federations, the Guilds, the Hutt clans? A compromise must be reached. I would not extend the military to the level of, let's say, the ancient Sith Empires, but to go without one for a thousand years is overkill as well. My own planet suffered the brunt of that mistake, though it took me nearly three years of war to see recognize that."

"You admit your views have changed then." He was probing, she realized, this being the first time they had talked privately since Palpatine's death. While Padme figured by now that Mon had always harbored unspoken suspicions about her, her sudden political turnabout must seem ever more inexplicable to those who had trusted her the most.

"Events changed the Galaxy, Bail. One cannot have lived through these years and not feel the need to change their views accordingly. We saw Palpatine order the Clones to do terrible things at the end, Bail, but we saw them do wonderful things as well."

"And yet the entire time they were doing the bidding of a Sith Lord, furthering his power."

"As were the Jedi, Bail."

Bail's shoulders slumped. The point clearly went to Padme, and while it may have been based on mere semantics, it demonstrated to him that she was now willing to engage in debate on that level. "Fine. I'll give you that. Both the Jedi and the Clones were used. Why favor one over the other?"

"I don't mean to put it too crudely, but at the base level, the Clones are more amenable to control. At the end of the day, they can be held accountable to the Senate, and the Republic. My husband has eliminated the Sith, but still you see even Jedi themselves have the potential to go 'Dark', especially when the Order is put under duress. There is no such danger with the Clones and eventually, a mixed military of Clones and volunteers will give the Senate its greatest bulwark against its enemies." Force, it scared her, even as she spoke, how capable she was now of squeezing a reasonable defense of stances she would have thought indefensible in the past.

"And what if our enemies infiltrate our own and take control of the Senate and thus, the Clones. That's exactly what already happened with Palpatine, after all."

"Then we will fix the Senate so that becomes an impossibility, which is why I called you here today, Bail."

"To fix the Senate," Bail repeated apprehensively. The words seemed right, but the way she said it seemed so off. He was being led, Bail realized. Somehow Padme was dictating the direction of their conversation, with himself riding along an unwitting passenger. It was his style after all to usually let others speak, and gauge their motivations through careful and controlled observation. Here though, and maybe it was because he had let his guard down because it was Padme,  _Padme_ , after all, but here he had completely lost control. He had no choice but to continue her course. "How would you have me save the Senate then?"

"We all know the rot in the Senate extended beyond just Palpatine and Amedda. I want you to form a commission to investigate where it all went wrong, and come up with action items, tangible proposals for reform that will not only help the Senate regain the trust of the public, but to further create a system where not only are there more stringent checks and rules to enforce the integrity and the ethical conduct of all Senators, but to provide incentives that will attract true honest politicians who feel the innate urge to serve their people, rather than greedy opportunists."

"Oh," was all Bail could manage to say immediately after the acting Empress was done. This was not what he had expected. "That is quite a tall order of tasks, Padme. What...parameters will I have for this committee?"

"You will have all the resources we can spare. Pick whomever you deem appropriate for the role."

"Even Senator Mothma? I know the relationship between the two of you is...not what it used to be." In his heart Bail hoped for a reconciliation between his two close friends. Mon had voiced to him some of her worst suspicions. Surely Padme was not trying to become a despot, was she? If only she would act in a way that would give him hope, that would give him evidence to refute Mon. Could this be a sign of one?

"I trust your judgment. If you believe her to be necessary, then do what you have to do. It is a fine line you will have to walk, of course. We want the committee to be representative, and it would help with the reconciliation if it were not comprised only of Senators who spoke against Palpatine, though we would need to make sure that no one on this committee are compromised by their actions under the last regime."

"You spoke of an investigative aspect of the committee. I understand that your husband is conducting his own investigation, and speaking frankly, he's the only one with access to key witnesses like Mas Amedda or Sly Moore."

They both knew what they were fishing for, and Padme hated the fact that now she would be forced to cross yet another line, and lie to both a friend and an ally for many years.

"I understand the sensitivity of both Anakin's investigation and the parallel probe you will run within the Senate. There are certain things only he can do, with resources not available to the Senate, and there is the issue of discretion as well. Individuals like Vice-Chair Amedda hold shameful secrets about the Republic that is too sensitive to be leaked, but I promise you I will do everything I can to get you the information you need."

She knew that he knew a non-answer when he heard one, but there was no chance anyone outside her, Anakin, or Rex's men were ever getting near Amedda or any other member of Palpatine's inner circle again, not with the amount of torture they had been through already; she suspected Pestage already possessed less sentience than an Alderaanian vegetable by now, and the rest were well on their way to the same.

"This is quite a responsibility Padme, but I recognize its importance to the future of the Republic, and I will not let you down."

Padme could hear through his diplomatic talk. He was saying, in other words, she had better not be setting him up for failure.

"In this difficult time, we need Senators like you more than ever." Her own words were meaningless. She had accomplished what she wanted by now, empowering her former base to avoid a revolt on that flank when she could least afford it, giving her a respite to move along her true plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a reminder, in this story (and its prequel) Ahsoka was initially Anakin's Padawan for a few months before he left the order due to Padme's pregnancy, but their bond and friendship remained. Obi-Wan chose to take Ahsoka on after Anakin left, and this Sith holocron serves as a deux ex machina to separate her from him in order to put her in the same place to be framed by Barriss as per canon. Padme represented her during her trial as well, with Tarkin prosecuting, all per canon.


End file.
